The Crimson Familiar
by The Uncreative
Summary: It took a few seconds before I realized what had happened. This girl, this fire-eyed girl, was what I had summoned. She was my familiar.
1. Summoning

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Shakugan no Shana or Zero no Tsukaima. In this whole story there are only two things I own, neither of which are related to the previous two properties.

Author Notes:

I originally planned to have this story up on October 10th to coincide with the final Shana novel, but several unexpected days off from school and many strokes of inspiration led to it being done much fast then I expected. Also, since the final Shana novel isn't out yet, I used one of my better skills while writing this story: making things up. As such, you shouldn't have to worry too much about spoilers.

Now for the actual chapter notes, for all the Shana crossovers I've read, not one of them has Shana being summoned as a familiar. Turns out there's a good reason for that, she's too overpowered. She's practically a god to these people, shooting out fire, flying, freezing time and whatnot.

Honestly I was a little apprehensive about writing this story for a few reasons. First, I was worried that this would be too similar to my last story (The Familiar Times, please read it). The original Zero no Tsukaima, but with a twist. Sure, my last story was Saito being from the future, and this story is about Shana being summoned as a familiar, but still, it was something I tried my best to avoid, and I think I did a pretty good job. Second, short of making Shana and Louise lesbians (something I do not plan on doing) I can't have any romance elements, which was one of my favorite and least favorite things to write. Still, as the story went on I found ways around those issues, and I'm pleased with the results.

Also, for obvious reasons, Fuzetsu won't be showing up in any battles. I'm sure I can come up with a good enough explanation eventually. Read, review, leave feedback, and enjoy the story!

**Summoning**

My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, the third daughter of Duke de la Vallière, and I was terrified. Today was the day second years were to summon their familiar, and I had made some foolish boasts as to what I would summon. I have never been good at magic, I always summon nothing but an explosion, but I told everyone I would summon something even better than everyone else's familiars combined.

In hindsight, that was stupid of me.

As I spoke the chant, everyone's eyes were focused on me, nobody seemed to know what to expect. I brought down my wand and, as was most likely expected by everyone, an explosion happened. I was knocked back and fell on my behind. Before I could see what happened, or even what anyone else thought, I felt metal pressed to my throat.

I looked up and saw that the metal belonged to a sword, a sword held by a girl who couldn't be any older than 13. She was standing in the middle of the crater that I guess my explosion made. She had long black hair that came down to her waist, and a pendant hung around her neck. She was dressed in a black shirt and pants, but I couldn't tell what they were made of. She was also wearing what looked like a long black coat. But what stood out most about her was her eyes. They were as red as a fire, and they were full of killing intent.

She glared at me. "Who are you and how did you bring me here?"

It took a few seconds before I realized what had happened. This girl, this fire-eyed girl, was what I had summoned. She was my familiar.

Her grip on the sword tightened. "Who are you?" She asked angrily.

"Be calm. I don't sense any killing intent from anyone, and they don't appear to be denizens," said a voice from nowhere. "Please miss, before she kills you, would you kindly explain what we are doing here?"

"M-my name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, and I think I just summoned you as my familiar."

Then the crowd starts laughing. "She summoned a commoner as a familiar! What a failure!"

Then the girl I had summoned glared at the crowd and they all fell silent. Mr. Colbert decided to speak up.

"Um... Okay, the ritual must continue."

I couldn't believe what he just said. "W-w-with her? B-but It's indecent!"

Colbert gave me his own glare, and I resigned myself to the fact that I had to do this. I turned to the fire-eyed girl.

"Please don't kill me for this, I don't have a choice in the matter," I say, scared of what the girl's reaction will be.

"What are you talking about?" She asks me.

Before she can ask anything else, I get closer, and press her lips to mine for a brief second. I pull away almost immediately.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!" I recoil in fear at her reaction.

"I-I'm sorry! I had to complete the familiar contract ritual! There was no other way!"

The fire-eyed girl looks ready to drive her sword through me, but then she drops her sword, falls to her knees and grasps her left hand.

"What did you do to her?" Asks that voice from nowhere.

"It should be over in a minute, its just the familiar runes being carved," I say. I don't know who I'm talking to, but he doesn't sound like someone I want to anger.

Eventually, the girl stands back up and examines her left hand. I look at it and see runes I've never seen before.

"Um... Are you going to kill me now?" Considering how she reacted, I can only assume she's going to kill me now. Could that happen? Could a familiar turn and kill their master?

I see her lower her head and she appears to be deep in thought. "You will take me to your residence, and you will tell me what is going on," she tells me coldly.

I nod. "Yes. Yes I will."

She picker up her sword, and puts into her coat where it disappears without a trace. Then she takes off her coat, whips it around, and it too disappears.

She looks at me, and I notice her eyes have changed color. Now they're black, and they seem much warmer, though still very ready to strike me down if I'm a threat. "Well? Shall we go?"

I begin walking towards my room, and the girl follows me. I can't help but steal a glance at Kirche. She, and everyone, seems absolutely terrified at what just happened, and I don't blame them. Unless our eyes were deceiving us, I just summoned a noble for a familiar. Saying nothing, I simply kept walking towards my room.

"He was supposed to be my first," I hear the girl mutter to herself as we head towards my room. It might be my imagination, but I thought I heard sadness in her voice when she said that.

It was a few minutes before we reached my room. The girl walked right in and sat on my bed. She bounced on it a few times, and looked like she was enjoying herself. I almost smiled at seeing her act like a little kid, it was such a stark contrast to the girl who nearly killed me a few minutes ago. She remembers where she is and glares at me.

"Now tell me whats going on," she says in a tone as cold as ice.

"Um... What do you want to know?" I ask.

Her glare deepens a little more. "How did you bring me here, and what did you mean by familiar?"

I gulp, despite looking pretty young, this girl could be very scary when she wanted to. "W-well, I used the summon familiar spell to summon a familiar. Usually it's an animal, like a dragon or griffon. I've never heard of a human being summoned before," then a thought hits me. "You are human, right?" I don't know why, but something about her doesn't strike me as natural.

"I was, but I wouldn't say that's what I am anymore," she tells me.

"W-what? Was?"

I hear the voice again. "She was a human, but she contracted herself to me, and is now a flame haze."

I look around, "Where's that voice coming from?"

The girl points to her pendant.

"Eh? The pendant can talk?"

"I'm not the pendant, I'm inside her, and I use the pendant to communicate with the outside world," the voice says.

I nod, and then I realize what was just said. "Wait, you're contracted to someone already? You're already a familiar? Then how did I summon you?" Could someone really be the familiar of two people at the same time?

I hear the pendant laugh. "She's not my familiar. Think of me as being her employer, and I gave her a job to do."

I kind of understand, but something bugs me. "That job is?"

The girl speaks up. "Eliminate the Denizens of the crimson world that want to feed on the power of existence and use it for their own means."

I stare blankly at her. "Um... Sorry but, I don't understand. Could you please explain?"

She sighs, almost like this brings back an old memory. "Sure, and please pay complete attention. This goes right over the heads of a lot of people because they don't bother giving their undivided attention."

*Scene Break*

"So, simply put, you're a bounty hunter who tracks down beings that try to disrupt the balance of the worlds?" My head was spinning from all the terms and things the girl said.

"Well... sort of. That's not inaccurate, but that's really simplifying it," says the girl.

"Does that mean you're not really from this world?"

She nods. "It seems so. I can confirm that there isn't a place like this back home. While unrestricted spells were common with flame haze, the general population was what you people call commoners."

I couldn't believe it. I didn't just summon a human familiar, I summoned a noble from another world. I almost fainted, but I realized that would make a poor impression.

"S-so what can you do? What magic do you have?" I silently prayed that she couldn't use it. I don't how I would react if my familiar was a better mage then I was.

She ponders for a second before looking at her pendant.

"Go ahead and tell her. From the sounds of it we have to protect this one, so it would be beneficial for her to know what we're capable of."

The girl looks down, like something about that sentence depresses her. I want to ask, but I'm too afraid of her possible reaction.

"I could tell you, but how about I show you?" She stands up and pulls her long coat out of nowhere. She puts it on, and raises a finger to the sky.

"Fuzetsu."

Then everything was suddenly tinged with a shade of red. The girl's hair and eyes had changed too. They were now a crimson red, and her hair almost seemed to shimmer, like a fire.

"W-w-what just happened?" I'm really scared. What did she do to everything?

"To put it in terms that won't confuse you too much, I removed the academy from the flow of time."

I stared at her blankly. I couldn't even come up with an adequate response. My familiar had that kind of power?

I must have been making a pretty good face because she actually laughed. "I guess that was a little too much. I'm just doing this so we can go outside and I can show you my capabilities without hurting anyone. She got up and walked outside and headed towards the courtyard. Almost as if in a trance, I followed her.

When we got to the courtyard, she pulled out her sword from her coat.

"How do you do that? Does the sword just appear when you need it too?" I ask.

"Actually, it's stored inside my coat using Alastor's inherent magic," She tells me.

"Who's Alastor?"

"That would be me," I hear the pendant say.

"The one she contracted herself to," I say.

"Yes. My name is The Flame of Heaven, Alastor. Other flame haze seem to consider me one of the most powerful beings, and my flame haze is usually feared as well."

I nod. That makes sense, if she had a powerful being inside her, it made sense that she could use magic like this. I look at the girl. "What's your name?"

The girl looks down. "I don't use a name anymore. The Flame Haze of Alastor is my title. At one time, if I needed to be differentiated from other Flame haze I was called Nietono no Shana."

"What?"

"The name of the sword I use."

I nod. "Then I'll call you Shana. Is that okay?"

She sits down, and I think I see tears roll down her face.

"S-sorry, did I do something bad?"

She shakes her head. "No, I'm sorry. Just a bad memory. Shana will be fine, I suppose."

Desperate to change the subject, I ask her to show me what she could do, though I almost wish I hadn't.

Put simply, Shana was amazing. She could freely control fire, jump incredibly high, and even sprout wings, all using her fire powers. I can almost feel my inferiority complex about my magic grow about three sizes. After the demonstration, she raises her finger to the sky and everything goes back to the way it was. She turns to me.

"Its late, I think now would be a good time to sleep, don't you?"

I nod. We went back to my room after making sure that everything was as it previously was.

We didn't spend to much time worrying about things like sleeping arrangements. We were both girls, so neither of us saw that much a problem sharing a bed. Shana fell asleep within minutes. I didn't have that much luck. I felt horrible that my familiar as such an amazing mage, when I was a complete failure. Horrible? No, the word was jealous.

I sit up and look at Shana. I admit, she looked a lot cuter when she was sleeping. She didn't have that killing intent she sometimes had, and she seemed a lot more at peace.

"No... Yuji, don't. Don't leave!" I hear her mutter in her sleep.

_What? Who's Yuji?_

"You must be curious," I hear Alastor say.

I'm shocked that he knew I was awake. Did he just never sleep?

"To answer the question you are must likely wondering, back in our world, I was the equivalent of a god. I have no need for things like sleep."

"Oh," that explains it. "Alastor, do you know who Yuji is?"

"Ah, you want to know about that." It might just be my imagination, but Alastor almost seemed a little bitter when he said that.

"Yes, please."

Alastor is unresponsive, probably wondering how much to say.

"Yuji was the person Shana fell in love with," he says eventually.

"What?" I whisper. I didn't see Shana as the type of person to fall in love.

"After Shana saved his life, we discovered that he had a powerful object inside him. We decided to stay near him to protect him in case anyone tried to kill him and take the object."

I nod to show that I understand.

"I'm sorry for how she's acting, she hasn't acted this way since we first made contact with Yuji," Alastor says.

"So she used to be nice?" I ask.

"Yes, before meeting Yuji, she was much like she is now. Cold and distant. After meeting him, and everything they went through, she opened up."

"Where is Yuji now?" I ask.

Alastor pauses. Apparently he doesn't want to talk about it much. "He's dead."

I almost feel my heart stop. "He's dead? What happened?"

Alastor sighs. "I don't like talking about it so I'll keep it brief. Due to unforeseen events, he betrayed us. He allied himself with the enemy, and we had no choice but to fight against him. There were heavy losses on both sides, but we were able to win. After Shana killed Yuji."

I couldn't respond to that. Shana had to kill the one she loved? That more then explained her attitude. I thanked Alastor for the information and tried to go to sleep.

"I miss him," I hear someone whisper.

"Shana!" Apparently she woke up sometime during the conversation.

"I'm sorry," Shana says while sitting up.

"What for? You have every right to behave the way you do. I don't know what I would do if I was in your place," I say, almost whispering as I sit up to face her.

"Still, that's no excuse. What I did in the past is the done, there's no changing that. Yes, I loved him, but he betrayed all of us."

"Do you regret it?"

She sighs. "Every day."

She desperately looks like she needs a hug, so I give her one. "I'm sorry for having to bring this situation up. I know its hard."

"I've been rude, I never asked for your name."

"Louise. Call me Louise."

She nods.

"Thank you Louise."

We both go to sleep, but I still think. As much as she tried to seem tough with her sword and powers, she was still a little girl at heart. _Is this what being a big sister feels like?_ I think back to all the times Cattleya comforted me when I felt down. I begin almost feeling a sense of responsibility towards her. I didn't want to see her sad. I wanted to help her. I just didn't know how.

*Outside*

Unknown to either Shana or Louise, a girl with long whitish-blonde hair was sitting on the railing of the balcony, absentmindedly swinging her legs over the edge, just outside the window to Louise's room.

"And so here we go," the girl said to herself. "I should make sure those two arrive on schedule. Don't want anything going overly terrible. It's far too early for that."

With that, the girl slides herself off the railing, and floats gently to the ground.

"Okay, where's that list again?" The girl says as she rummages through her pockets. "Ah! Okay. She'll be showing up a bit later, so I'll just observe until then. Gotta make sure those two show up at the right time, as well. Gah! This whole thing's way more complicated then it seemed at first!"

The girl sighs. "Ah well. It's important, anyway. See you soon!"

Then the girl disappeared in a blink, and the night was entirely still.


	2. Impressions

Author Notes:

Okay, despite what the Fouquet "fight" may indicate to you, I'm trying to put more effort into the action scenes. Its simultaneously harder and easier because of how powerful and versatile Shana is. The fact that she's so powerful allows me to do things like Fouquet, done with one swing, but it also allows me to do things like the duel, where she gets chance to show off a little bit. Put simply, if there's an action scene from Shana's perspective, effort will be put into it.

Also, I don't think Shana can change the color of her eyes on command, but I really liked the idea so I took a few liberties. I'm sure no one will mind. Read, review, leave feedback, and enjoy the story!

Impressions

I felt horrible. No matter what happened in the past, I shouldn't let it affect me this much. I felt horrible that I was being so cold and distant to Louise. After she talked to me last night, I silently vowed that I would never let anything happen to her. I would not allow anyone to get her hands on her and I would not allow what happened last time to repeat itself.

When I woke up, not quite used to this world, I had a brief period of panic. This was not the first time I've woken up in an unfamiliar, though admittedly nice looking, room. I heard a sound to my right and saw Louise, and I remembered what happened. I woke Louise up so she could go to class, while I went for a walk around the academy to familiarize myself with the surroundings. If an attack were to happen, I wanted to have an intimate knowledge of the battlefield. After that was done I walked to what appeared to be the school courtyard and sat down at one of the table.

Apparently it was around lunch time because many of the students were eating and talking to each other. One guy nervously walked up to me. He was rather thin, had a mop of blonde hair, and was a carrying a rose.

"You are the girl Louise summoned?" He asks me nervously.

"What of it?" Something about him made me angry, but I didn't know what.

"Well, its just that... You're rather pretty. Would you mind-"

"No," I tell him bluntly. I already knew what he was going to ask, and it wasn't something I was looking for.

"W-what? You didn't even let me finish!"

"You don't usually tell a girl she's pretty and then suggest anything other than a date. I'm not really into dates at the moment."

"P-please! Just one!" Then what I hated about him made itself apparent as a girl with curly blonde hair stormed up to the boy.

"Guiche! What are you doing talking to her?" The girl asks angrily.

"Montmorency! I-I just heard a rumor that this girl was a mage, and I just wanted to ask her if it was true! Honestly!" The boy named Guiche said.

"No, you didn't. You said I was 'pretty' and then you tried to ask me on a date."

Montmorency gasps. "Guiche! You asked another girl out? And I suppose that rumor about you dating the first year was true also!"

I can feel myself start burning up with anger. "You ask me out when you were already dating two girls?"

Guiche takes a step back, startled. "Y-your eyes changed color!"

"Answer the question!" I yell at him while getting out of the chair.

Guiche takes another step back and starts sweating. "I-I-It's not true!" Then he firmly plants his feet into the ground and takes on a look of determination. "If you insist on treating nobility this way then I have no choice but to challenge you to a duel."

I raise an eyebrow. "Duel?"

He nods. "If you insist on treating nobility in this way, than there is no other option. Regrettable, I hate to do this to a pretty thing like yourself," then Montmorency slaps him.

"So you were hitting on her!" She kicks Guiche in the shin for good measure.

"A-Anyway, meet me in Vestri Court if you are willing to go through with this. Otherwise an apology will suffice."

I respond by glaring at him. "If you think I'm going to back down from a cheating, womanizing weakling like you, then you are mistaken."

He looks frightened, then turns and runs off to what I assume is Vestri Court.

"I can't say I approve of this. We shouldn't be starting fights," says Alastor.

I sigh. "I know, but I couldn't help myself. He needs to be taught a lesson."

"I completely agree," says a voice from behind me.

I turn around and see Louise. "You're not going to try and stop me from fighting him?"

She shakes her head. "No, he deserves to have some sense beaten into him. Just go easy on him, and try not to kill anyone."

I nod. "I understand. Can you show me to Vestri Court?"

Louise smiles and grabs my arm, "Follow me."

*Scene Break*

"Ah, Louise. Are you here to beg me to stop the duel so your familiar doesn't get hurt?" Says Guiche.

"No, I'm here to make sure she doesn't go overboard and accidentally kill you," Louise tells him.

"What?"

"Trust me Guiche, you can't win this. You really shouldn't even try."

I was standing in the court across from Guiche. From what I heard from Louise, Guiche was an earth mage who specialized in making bronze golems. They could be a problem, but I highly doubted they'd help him much.

"Now, shall we begin?" I ask him.

He looks surprised at my eagerness, but nods. He waves his wand and a single petal flies off. A bright light shines where it lands and a golem resembling a valkyrie rests where the light once was.

"Hmmm. Not what I expected from a bronze golem. I probably won't even need my sword for this."

"Try not to show off too much, we don't need to draw attention to ourselves," says Alastor.

The golem charges and tries to punch me in the gut, but I expected something like that. I sidestep the punch and grab onto the golem's arm. I throw the golem behind me and it falls apart as soon as it hits the ground. Guiche starts panicking and waves his rose again. Six petals fall and spawn six more valkyries. I start casually walking towards the six of them, and they charge me. I sidestep their swipes and slices. I grab the arm of one as it brings down its sword and snap its hand off. I pick up the discarded hand, still holding the sword, and toss it behind my shoulder, where it implants itself in the helmet of the valkyrie trying to sneak up behind me.

I kick one of the valkyries in the stomach, and it falls apart. Then the valkyrie whose hand I snapped off tries to punch me with it remaining hand, but I jump and land behind the valkyrie. I plant my elbow into its back, and it falls apart. The three remaining valkyries form a defensive line in front of Guiche. I stay put, waiting for one of them to make the first move. Then the one in the middle of the line breaks formation and tries to swipe at me horizontally with an axe. I duck and the axe goes over my head. I use the opening and charge at Guiche, and weave right behind the two remaining valkyries. Guiche looks surprised that I could have tried such a tactic, but that doesn't last long. Before he can do anything I stick my fist into his stomach, and he goes flying backwards about 10 feet, landing on his back. His concentration lost, the last valkyries crumble.

I casually walk up to where he is, and he tries to back up and get away from me.

"If I ever catch you cheating on anyone ever again, I will be back to finish the job," I tell him. To prove my point I deliver a swift kick and implant my foot into the ground right next to his head, leaving a foot shaped imprint in the soil. He gets up and runs away.

"I tried to warn him," I hear Louise say. We turn around and head back to her room, ignoring the stares of everyone in attendance.

*Scene Break*

_BANG! BANG!_

"Shana, wake up."

I immediately bolt upright. "What is it Alastor?"

_BANG!_

"Oh, that. Hey, Louise! Get up!" I shake Louise until she wakes up.

"Shana? What's going on?"

_BANG!_

"Oh, that explains it." We get out of the bed, get dressed, and head out to investigate the noise.

When we get outside we see the cause of the banging, a giant stone golem. On the Golem's left shoulder is a person wearing a black hooded cloak. I can't make out any details other than it's a female on the Golem.

"Louise, use your magic and try to take out the golem, I'll get the rider." I put on my cloak and pull out Nietono no Shana. I grow my wings and fly up to the top of the golem.

The golem is only about 70 feet tall, so it doesn't take long for me to reach it's shoulder. I quick glance shows that Louise is trying to cast spells, but the fact that the treasury tower just exploded behind the rider shows that her aim is terrible. I point my sword at the rider.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

She responds by pulling out a wand and having the part of the golem I'm standing on rise up and trap my ankles. Before she can respond or try anything else, Louise finally manages to hit her target and the Golem's right arm explodes and collapses into dust. The rider turns and notices Louise. She has the golem use it's remaining arm to pick up a boulder and toss it at Louise.

"Louise!" I exert some energy and the ground holding onto me breaks apart. I jump off the golem and fly towards Louise. I grab her and jump back out of the boulder's impact zone. I look towards where the golem was, but its already taken off. I notice that the rider is carrying a box with her. Whatever was in that box was her target and she got away with it. Upset at myself for letting the thief get away, I chuck a large fireball at the golem. It's far away by this point, so I miss.

"S-sorry Shana, I froze up," Louise says.

Too upset at myself for letting such an easy target get away, I don't say anything. I turn around and start to walk back to the room when I'm stopped.

"Wait! What happened!" I turn around and see the school's faculty. The one speaking is the teacher who was present when Louise summoned me.

I glared at them. "A person riding a giant golem showed up and broke into the treasury. We tried to stop them but were unsuccessful." The group takes a step back, probably noticing how upset I am.

A man I recognize as being the headmaster steps forward. "R-right. We'll talk about this in the morning. For now, just go to sleep."

Without waiting for a reply from anyone, I grab Louise by the arm and drag her back to her room.

"Shana, what's the matter?" Louise asks me once we enter her room.

_What an inconceivably stupid question. _"What do you think is the matter? I was careless and let the thief get away!" Maybe I was overreacting, but I didn't care.

"Yes, the thief got away, but if you didn't help me, I'd be flattened by a boulder. Tomorrow, we'll go after her." Louise says.

"Fine." And with that, I crawl into the bed and go back to sleep.

*Scene Break*

"You're sure this information is accurate?"

"Trust me, its accurate," says Ms. Loungeville.

Louise, myself, and Ms. Loungeville were currently on a carriage heading for a cottage in the middle of the woods. The headmaster called Louise and I up to his office to discuss the theft. The thief was named Fouquet, and had stolen the powerful magic artifact, the Staff of Destruction. Ms. Loungeville had done her own investigation, and claimed to have the location of Fouquet's hideout.

"Shana," whispered Alastor, "I don't trust her."

"I agree, it's too convenient that she could have so easily found the location of a thief that on one has caught before."

"What are you whispering about?" I hear Louise ask.

"Absolutely nothing," replies Alastor.

Louise raises an eyebrow, clearly not convinced, but decides against asking us. Eventually we reach the cottage, and the three of us step off the carriage.

"You two check out the cottage, I'll sweep the surrounding area for Fouquet," says Ms. Loungeville.

_What's she up to? Why is she so willing to leave us to a potentially dangerous situation?_

Louise and I nod and we walk up to the cottage. Not bothering to check to see if anyone is inside, I kick down the door and begin the search for the Staff of Destruction, only for it's box to be sitting out in the open on a table in plain sight.

"Louise, is this the staff of destruction?" I ask.

Louise walks over and looks at the box in surprise. She picks it up and examines it.

"There's no denying it, this definitely looks like the staff of destruction's box. It feels like it's still in there too."

"Why would Fouquet leave what she stole out in the open for anyone to come by and pick up?" Alastor asks, trying to hide the fact that he already knows.

Before we can think about it too much, a familiar noise is heard outside the cottage.

_BANG!_

I run up to the window and see the golem walking towards the cottage. I put on my coat and pull out Nietono no Shana.

"Louise, stay here. I'm going to handle this."

Louise opens her mouth to protest, but I give her my best shot at a death glare. She shrinks back in fear.

"G-go on."

Not bothering to walk to the door to get out, I hit the window with the hilt of my sword, smashing it into pieces, and jump out. I run up to the golem, but notice that Fouquet isn't riding on it.

"Look like I was right," Alastor says.

"Yep, and considering she's not on it, we have no need for this golem."

I calmly walk up to the golem. It looks at me and decides it want to try and crush me under its foot. Not in the mood to mess around, I dodge the step and jump up. When I'm level with the midsection of the golem, I swing my sword horizontally, putting only a little bit of power of existence into it. When I land I look at the golem for a second. Then the golem splits into two halves and falls apart. The torso hits the ground and becomes dirt instantly. The legs stay frozen where they are for a moment before they also crumble into dirt. I point Nietono no Shana at a spot in the forest and shoot some flames in that direction.

"Ms. Loungeville, come out now. Your golem is destroyed."

"What? That was her golem?" I turn and see that at some point Louise had joined me and was next to me. "Then that means-"

"Very good familiar. I never expected that someone would figure it out so quickly," Ms. Loungeville says as she walks out from behind the trees I scorched. "I also never expected someone to take out my golem with one swing. That must be some sword you have."

"Wait, so you're Fouquet?" Louise asks.

Mrs. Loungeville smiles. "Yes. I am Fouquet of the crumbling earth. I'd love to stay and chat, but since you know who I am, and have taken the staff back, I should go."

I put some energy into my jump and close the distance between us in seconds. "I don't think so." I hit her on the head with the flat end of Nietono no Shana. She collapses to the floor. I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder.

"Ready to go Louise?"

She looks stunned, but nods. I walk over to her and grab onto her arm.

"You might want to hold on. The flight gets a little bumpy," As I tell her that, I grow my wings and take off towards the academy. Louise screams a little when we take off, but she gets over it, and starts enjoying the flight.

*Louise POV*

I still couldn't believe that Shana was so powerful. She could completely destroy that golem with just one swing! I also couldn't believe she could fly so easily either. How could she use flames to make solid wings?

When we got back to the academy we explained the situation to Osmand. For our efforts, we were both offered the title of chevalier, but we both refused. I didn't think I deserved it considering I didn't do much but watch, and Shana just flat out refused. We were however, going to be made guests of honor at the ball. Shana never showed up at the ball though. I was asked by many people to dance, but I refused them all. I had this weird feeling that something wasn't right.

After a while I became worried about Shana, so I went out looking for her. Eventually I found her sitting on the roof of the building the ball was being held in.

"What's the matter? Don't like dances?" I asks her.

She looks startled for a second and turns to me. "How'd you know I'd be here?"

"I didn't. You didn't show up for the dance, so I went looking for you. I had a feeling you'd be on top of one of the building though. You seem like that kind of girl," I say while sitting next to her.

Neither of us really say anything after that, and we don't need to. I just sit next to Shana and look up at the sky. As I look at the sky, I feel a sharp pang near my heart. _Why? _I ask myself. _Why do I feel like someone important is missing? _Shana and I stare at sky until the ball is over, lost in thought.


	3. Strength

Author Notes:

I'm rather proud of how I handled the Wardes/Shana relationship. I feel I kind of overdid what Shana's reaction would be to things like Wardes not really caring for Louise, but then I remembered the original light novels for Zero no Tsukaima. Saito absolutely lost it when he fought Wardes the second time, so Shana, already having lost a love to the dark side, would probably be even more violent. Probably.

If you read my last story, you may have noticed that I'm getting through a lot more story in very few chapters. That's intentional. If my last story was "Zero no Tsukaima Abridged," I wanted this to be closer to "Zero no Tsukaima Abridged, Abridged." At first, anyway. Read, review, leave feedback, and enjoy the story!

**Strength**

Louise and I were on out way to Albion. A few days after the ball, the princess of Tristain, Princess Henrietta, came to Louise and asked her to do something for her. Being childhood friends, Louise said yes. We were to go to Albion and retrieve a letter sent to Prince Wales by Henrietta. We were accompanied by Guiche, who overheard the entire conversation, and Wales, Louise's fiancé. Something about the way Louise acted indicated she didn't want to go through with the marriage, so I kept an eye on Wardes. If he tried, in any way, to force Louise then I would have to kill him.

"You never were good when it came to things like love," Alastor notes.

"Shut up."

Guiche and I rode on horseback, while Louise rode with Wardes on his griffon. I couldn't shake the feeling that Wardes was not someone we should trust. _Why? He's Louise's fiancé, and is trusted enough by the princess to go on this mission._

We rode in silence until we made it to a canyon. Then a flaming arrow landed in front of my horse. I jumped of and noticed that there was a large group of people up on the cliffs. I pulled out Nietono no Shana and jumped up and landed on top of the cliff where they were. They all seemed startled that I could jump that high, so I used that opportunity to swing my sword in a wide arc, shooting flames at every one of them. I didn't use enough fire to kill, just enough to hopefully keep them away. I jumped back down and joined up with the rest of the group who, except for Louise, was looking at me stunned.

I hear what sounds like wings beating. I turn around and see two girls, one with short blue hair and the other with long red hair, riding on top of a dragon. They land next to us and dismount.

"Um... We were going to help out, but it looks like you have it under control," the redhead remarks.

*Scene Break*

It turns out that girls, named Tabitha and Kirche, followed us using Tabitha's dragon, Slyphid, after they saw us ride away from the academy. We decided it was okay for them to join us, and we checked into the hotel we would stay at until morning. Kirche and Tabitha got a room, Guiche and Wardes got a room, and Louise and I got a room. Wardes was going to get a room with Louise, but do to the insistence of both Louise and I, we were in the same room. Since it was late, we got changed and got into the bed to go to sleep for the night. However, something was bothering me, so I decided to ask Louise about it.

"Louise, do you want to marry Wardes?"

"S-Shana! W-w-why would you ask that kind of question?" Louise is visibly flustered.

"I'm curious. You said the marriage was arranged, so I wanted to know if you really wanted to go through with it. "

Louise remains silent for a while, and I wait for her response.

"I don't know," Louise says sadly. "He's kind, he's strong, he's well known, but I don't feel like I can marry him. I don't know what it is, but I have this feeling..." Her voice trails off.

"Feeling?" I ask her.

"No, you'd probably just think I'm crazy."

"Louise, we are from an alternate planet with one moon, advanced technology, and we hunt down supernatural creatures trying to eat the existence of various random people. Do you really think we have any right to call you crazy?" Alastor says, making a good point.

Louise sighs. "I just have this feeling that someone important is missing. I don't know who, but I know that someone who should be here isn't. It makes me feel uneasy."

I ponder this for a minute. "How is this stopping you from marriage? You don't know who this person is."

"I know. I just feel that I shouldn't do anything like marriage without that person. Do you know why I could have this feeling?"

"Maybe it's tied to your magic?" Alastor suggests.

"Magic? I'm a zero. I can't do anything. I'll just create another explosion."

"Have you tried all the elements?"

"Of course! Fire, water, wind, earth, none of them work!"

"Isn't there a fifth element? I've heard it mentioned a few times during your lessons." I say.

"What? Void was lost centuries ago. No one can use it!"

"I wouldn't be so sure. Think about it, you've tried all four elements, but none work. If you weren't a mage, nothing would happen, but you manage an explosion. That shows that you have magical capabilities. If you tried four of the five elements and failed, but you still have magical capabilities, what other option is there?" I always hated it when Alastor used his wits. He never gave anyone a chance to get a word in.

Louise thinks this over. "I don't know. I just don't see it. But, if that's it, then maybe that could explain why I have this feeling. Maybe I have some kind of link to that person, and it all ties into void magic."

"Okay, now we're just speculating. It's probably best if we get to sleep and focus on the mission," says Alastor.

_Who could this person Louise is talking about be? _Considering nobody knew anything about void, it wasn't too far a stretch to think that if Lousie was a user of it, then she could possibly have a premonition about someone she was going to meet. I put this question at the back of my mind and fall asleep.

*Scene Break*

I woke up to the sound of knocking on the door. I got up, got dressed, and opened the door to find Viscount Wardes waiting at it.

"Louise is still sleeping, so if you want to see her you'll have to wait."

He chuckles. "Ah, but I'm not here for her. I'm here for you."

I raise and eyebrow. "And why would that be?"

"I wanted to ask you to a duel."

"A duel?" My curiosity is piqued.

"I saw how easily you handled that ambush back at the canyon, and I couldn't help myself. I had to see how powerful my fiancé's familiar was."

I stare at him a while, pondering my response. "Accepted. When and where?"

He smiles. "Now, preferably. The courtyard will do. Please wake Louise up, we must have a witness or the duel isn't official."

I nod. "Okay. See you then."

He turns and walks off, and I go to the bed.

"Hey, Louise, your fiancé asked me to duel him and I said yes. We need you to wake up so we can have a witness."

Her eyes shoot open and she sits up in an instant. "What?"

"Like I said, he challenged me and I said yes."

"You can't do that! You'll end up killing him!" Louise sounds very scared for some reason.

"I don't plan on giving any more than 5% at most. Trust me, the way things are, I will never need to go all out. That would be overkill."

Louise looks at me and sighs. "All right. Just try not to go overboard."

"We make no promises," says Alastor.

With that, Louise gets out of bed and gets dressed. We exit her room and head towards the courtyard, where we find Wardes waiting, wand in hand.

"Ah, you came after all."

"Wardes, you might want to be careful. Shana can be a little... enthusiastic, and she can forget to hold back," Louise warns him.

He chuckles. "Don't worry my Louise, I believe I can easily handle whatever she throws at me."

I put on my coat and pull out Nietono no Shana. "Don't act so cocky. The only time you should ever underestimate your opponent is when you know for a fact you can beat them. If you aren't aware of your opponent's potential, you should never underestimate them, it could easily come back and get you."

Wardes laughs this off too. "Are you saying you think you can beat me? The captain of the manticore knights?"

"I know I can beat you, and that's the difference between us. You think you can beat me because of the reputation you have. I know I can beat you because of the enemies I have faced and defeated. Before becoming Louise's famliar, I killed people powerful enough to be gods on a daily basis. I've even killed a god before," I tell him.

He looks at me in shock. "You're bluffing."

"You're right, he was only fused with the god and had access to all of its powers, he wasn't actually the god, though the god died with him," I tell Wardes.

He seems shocked at what I've just told him, but then he readies his wand. I jump towards him, but he's fast. We both leap around the battlefield after each other, a deadly game of cat and mouse. Unlike other mages, Wardes can chant and move at the same time, and he's been chanting what I can already tell is a powerful spell. He casts it, and a large wall of air comes towards me. I slice and make a cut in the wall large enough for me to get through without any wound.

Wardes is too surprised and freezes in place. I jump towards him and swing, hitting him across the face with the flat of my sword. He hits the ground and slides back, but stands back up. I point my sword at his throat.

"Pathetic. I set a limit of 5% of my potential power for this match, but I only hit 2%. I thought the captain of the guard would have been a tougher fight."

"I-I'm not done yet!"

He hits my sword with his wand and gives himself enough space to jump back.

"Hmmm. So your wand doubles as a sword. Interesting."

He casts another spell and four copies of himself appear.

"I can use the wind to make four solid copies of myself, and I can control each of them individually. Can you handle attacks from all directions little girl!"

Something about him has changed. What used to be a man with an almost warm light in his eyes has been transformed into a killer. For something that's supposed to be a practice fight, he sure is taking this seriously.

Then the five Wardes try to surround me. They all start casting spells, but I either cut through them or dodge. I slice at one and it disappears. The process repeats itself, dodge, weave, slice, disappearance, until all that's left is one very tired looking Wardes.

"You know, that was a pretty good try. I think you got me up to 3%," I probably shouldn't taunt him like that, but it's too easy.

He glares at me like a cornered animal and raises his wand. Clouds start surrounding his wand and they start crackling with electricity.

"Shana!" Louise cries from the sidelines, "Watch out! That's lightning cloud!"

Apparently lightning cloud is a very powerful spell if Louise is warning me about it. I ready Nietono no Shana to block the spell. Wardes points his wand at me, and lightning moves towards me. It hits my sword and I won't lie, I could feel a bit of a sting from that one. Luckily for me, Nietono no Shana is one of the most powerful artifacts in existence, so the attack does next to nothing. When the spell finishes, Wardes looks at me, stunned that his attack was ineffective. I calmly walk up to him and punch him in the face. He lands on the ground with a thud.

In all honesty, despite that being a pretty powerful spell, I'd still say I only got up to maybe 4% of my actual power. However, there's something odd about Wardes, so I try an actual bluff.

"Not gonna lie, that one stung a little bit. Congratulations, you got me up to 6%. I would have liked to not go over, but like Louise said, I can get a little enthusiastic. Doesn't look like I'm the only one either. That was clearly a spell that could kill. If you're someone to let yourself go out of control and try to kill someone, especially a little girl, during a practice session, then you don't deserve your title or your reputation."

"Little girl?" Alastor whispers.

"Shut up, that's what he thinks of me."

"D-Damn you," is Wardes' response.

"Ah, what's with that? Sore loser? Trust me, you're not the only one. I hate losing too, so I'll let you go."

I turn around and walk to Louise.

"You did try to warn him. Maybe the next person you warn will actually listen."

*Scene Break*

After the duel, Louise and I killed some time until night. The ship was to take off early tomorrow morning, so went to sleep early so we would be prepared. Louise and I woke up to the sound of a fight happening in the main room. We got up, changed, and went to investigate. What we found was the hotel in a state of war. Guiche, Tabitha, Kirche, and Wardes took cover behind a table and were trying to fend off what looked like a group of bandits. I noticed that they were the same bandits who had ambushed us in the canyon.

Louise and I took cover behind the same table as the rest of the group.

"What's going on?" asked Louise.

"Well I thought that was obvious," says Kirche, "we're being attacked."

"I know that! Why?"

"They want to stall us. They want us to miss the ship to Albion. Whoever they are, they working with the rebels in Albion," I tell the group.

"What? How do you know that?" Wardes asks.

"I don't. It's a guess. Why else would they attack us at the canyon, and then attack us again as we get ready to board the ship?"

The group sees my point, and tries to come up with a course of action to deal with the attack.

"You guys go board the ship, I'll keep them busy and catch up later," I tell the group.

"What! You expect to take all these guys single handedly? That's impossible!" Says Guiche.

"No, this will work. Though I don't know how you intend to regroup with us, I have full confidence that you'll be able to distract them," says Wardes.

I nod, and shoo the rest of the group off towards the ship. I jump out from behind the table and face down the mercenaries. There are about 10 of them, and they all seemed surprised that only one person was sent to hold them off. Then their faces pale when they recognize me.

"Good, you remember me. Since you do, I'd gladly request that you leave before I have to use force," I tell them, and I use some power so that my eyes change to red for added effect.

The effect being that they knock each other over trying to get out the door and away from me. I can't help it and smile.

"You're enjoying this a little too much, don't you think?"

"You're probably right Alastor, but I never got this kind of reaction back home. It's nice to have some change every once in a while."

As I say that I hear the sound of an old friend outside. I jump out the nearest window and see Fouquet riding a golem a bit larger than before.

"Now I will stop you from boarding that- What! He didn't tell me it was you going to Albion!"

I jump towards the golem and give a power slice diagonally, destroying the golem in one strike. Fouquet fall off, and I jump and catch her. She could have some useful information. I hear another noise and notice that the ship has taken off. Good, that means mission accomplished. I turn to Fouquet.

"Again, good, someone remembers me. So how about a deal? You tell me what I need to know, and you get to live. Fair enough?"

She nods frantically. "Yes! Anything! Please don't kill me!"

I set her down and she stands, clearly frightened of me. Honestly if felt pretty good to know that there were people who recognized that I wasn't someone to be taken lightly.

"What were you doing here?"

"I was asked to stall the group that was sent to retrieve the letter so you wouldn't be able to board the boat to Albion. He didn't tell me that you were part of the group," says Fouquet.

"And who asked you to do this?"

"I... Well he would kill me, but there's no doubt that you'd do the exact same in a much worse way. The man who asked me to stall you Wardes."

I freeze in place. "Viscount Wardes? Louise's fiancé? The one with our group?"

She nods.

I start feeling anger welling up inside me. "Go. I'm heading to Albion."

"How do you plan to do that? Its a floating continent and the last ship just left with your group on it!"

I grow my flame wings and take off in the direction the ship was. I think I hear Fouquet gasp as I start flying, but I don't have time. I have to go help Louise.

"Looks like we were right. Wardes is a traitor," notes Alastor.

"And that means he was just using Louise to accomplish his own ends." Fueled by my own anger, I start flying and reach speeds I never even knew I could. I keep flying for what seems like hours until I see a large continental land mass, and I stop.

"Fouquet wasn't kidding. It really is a floating continent."

I fly up and notice what looks like a port. I fly towards it and land there, ignoring the gazes of people who just saw me fall from the sky. When I land, I go down on one knee to catch my breath.

"You should rest. You used too much energy on that flight over here," says Alastor with a tone of worry.

Before I can respond my left eye starts to itch. Before I can even wonder what it could mean, my vision blurs, and I see what looks like a church with two people in it.

"I see Wardes!"

"What? What do you mean? He's nowhere near here."

"My left eye's vision blurred and now I can see what looks like the inside of a church. Wardes and some other guy are there. Alastor, I think this is Louise's view."

"Hmm. Maybe a byproduct of the familiar contract? But why is it happening now?"

As he says that, I notice that Wardes has that look in his eyes he had when we were fighting. Wardes looks downright murderous. Then he pulled out his sword wand and stabbed the other guy through the heart, and I understood what the reason behind the vision was.

"Louise is in trouble!"

I jump up and grow my wings again, and start flying towards a building I see in the distance. I made this building my destination because its the only building around that looks like a church, and I have a feeling that this is the building.

When I reach the building my first course of action is to look through one of the windows next to the door and see what's happening inside. I see Wardes with his wand drawn getting closer to Louise, who is backing away, scared. That's all I need to know and I kick the door in.

*Louise POV*

Right before Wardes was about to kill me, I heard the door slam open. Wardes, briefly distracted, turns to see what just happend, and I do the same. We saw Shana step through the door.

"Wardes," Her tone of voice makes it clear she is ready to kill someone, "why are you getting ready to kill Louise?"

"Ah, you see, I had three goals when I came here," begins Wardes calmly. "The first was Louise, but she declined the marriage. The second was the letter. The third was the life of Prince Wales. Wales is dead, but Louise won't marry me, so I have no choice but to kill her and take the letter."

At that Shana makes her fury known. She puts on her coat and draws her sword. Her hair and eyes become a crimson read, and a circle of flames is shooting out from the ground around her. She doesn't say anything and she doesn't have to. The sight of her surrounded by flames is more than enough of an indicator as to her current state of mind.

Wardes gulps and immediately takes several steps back. "O-on second thought, maybe only one goal isn't that bad." He calls in his griffon and tries to escape.

"Like hell I'd let you!" As the griffon takes off, Shana fires a huge stream of flames at the beast. It tries to dodge, but gets pulled into the flames. I don't know what happens because all of this is too much for me. I saw Wales murdered before my eyes, the man I yearned for as a child was a traitor and tried to kill me, and I saw a truly angry Shana. If I was forced to choose one of the three to relive over again, it wouldn't be an angry Shana. I passed out.

*Scene Break*

I woke up with the feeling of wind on my face. I look and notice that we're riding Slyphid and Guiche, Kirche, and Tabitha are on board. I also notice that Shana is holding me to make sure I don't fall off.

I hear Shana sigh in relief. "Oh good, your awake."

"What happened to Wardes?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. I overdid it with that flame and passed out not long after you did."

"So, was that your limit? You 100%?"

She chuckles. "Not quite. That was more 45%. I had spent a lot of energy flying up to Albion. Those wings consume a lot energy really quickly. Anyway, after that, Guiche and his mole dug a hole into the church on accident and found us. He had Kirche and Tabitha pick up and drop us on Slyphid so we could escape."

I nodded, then remembered something important. I checked my shirt pocket and found that the letter was still there. I sigh in relief. But I still have that feeling. That feeling that something is missing. I feel that something should be happening now on Slyphid, but nothing does. _What is wrong with me?_

"Louise, is everything alright?" Shana asks me worriedly.

"No, just that feeling again."

"That person?"

I nod. Than Shana does something unexpected and pulls me into a hug.

"It'll be fine. Whoever this person is, we'll find them. Then you can stop worrying about these kinds of things."

I smile. "Thanks Shana."

I honestly feel almost like a sister to Shana. Even if we're not related, even if we're from completely different worlds, I see her as a little sister I never had. I had Eleonore and Cattleya, but Eleonore was evil, and Cattleya was my big sister. I liked the feeling of being the big sister for once, even if Shana was the one comforting me.

Wondering what could happen next, Shana and I simply rode Slyphid in silence all the way back to Tristain.


	4. Friends

Author Notes:

This chapter's mostly filler, so it's nothing special.

Also, anything involving the Snake of the Festival is only my understanding of the events using the facts I've gathered from various summaries and frequent visits to TV Tropes. As such, it's all most likely inaccurate, which worries me. Read, review, leave feedback, and enjoy the story!

**Friends**

After coming back from Albion, Louise and I met with the princess. We told her what happened, and gave her the letter. She seemed distraught when we told her Wales was dead, and I can understand. I took my best shot at comforting her, and it worked surprisingly well.

For our efforts, Louise was made a chevalier, and I was given a bag of gold coins. I was offered the title of Chevalier, but I refused. Apparently the title of chevalier was only given to those who had done great deeds in service of the nation, and I didn't believe I had done any great deeds. That and apparently only mages could be nobles and, at least by this world's definition, I was not a mage.

After the meeting Louise and I headed back to the academy where we were immediately surrounded by students who wanted to know what had happened. Apparently rumors had spread of us going to Albion on an important mission for the royal family, and everyone wanted to know the details.

"Sorry, we can't tell you. It was a secret mission," Louise told the crowd.

Looking slightly dejected they started walking off.

"Oh well, it's not like it was anything spectacular. What could Louise do for the royal family?" Said the girl I recognized as Montmorency.

I calmly walked up to her and grabbed her by the neck of her blouse.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear that. What did you say about Louise?"

"I-I s-s-said it must have been a job of the utmost importance if the princess entrusted Louise with it!" She says scared.

"Thank you, that's what I thought you said," I let go and walk with Louise back to her room.

"You know, it was just Montmorency, you didn't have to threaten her," Lousie tells me.

I sigh, "You're probably right. It was just a reflex."

"Shana never was good at handling things in a nonviolent manner," Alastor tells Louise.

"Shut up."

As we head back to Louise's room we turn the corner and I accidentally bump into one of the school maids, knocking over the tray she was carrying.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention," I tell the maid while picking up her tray and handing it to her. I always had a soft spot for maids. They reminded me of Wilhelmina.

"No, it was my fault," She says while bowing. Then she looks at me and Louise. "Ah! You're miss Valliere's familiar."

I nod.

"Is it true? I've heard some rumors that you're a mage," She asks in a voice that clearly sounds like she's not sure if she should be asking at all.

Maybe it was the somewhat shy personality, but this girl was starting to remind me of Kazumi. Why was it so easy to find people here who were so similar to those back home?

"Well, it's not magic, but I can do some feats that normal humans can't." Despite what the people here may think when I used my powers, it wasn't quite the same as what they use. As Louise explained to me when I asked some time ago, the mages here used their internal energy to alter the landscape. I simply channeled Alastor's energy into forms I could use.

The maid tilts her head to the side. "But if you can do things that the commoners can't then you're using magic, and if you're using magic you're a mage, right?"

"Its not magic. I simply channel my internal energy into whatever form is appropriate. If you have enough energy to spare, anyone could conceivably do it as well," I tell the maid. "I once knew a regular human, nothing magical about him. After some incidents, he increased his energy to a point where he could do the same feats I could," I realize what I just said and fall silent. _Why did I just think of Yuji? He doesn't have anything to do with this conversation._

"What? Really?" asks Louise and the maid at the same time.

Shaking the thoughts of Yuji out of my head, I continue the conversation. "Yeah. I can't advise trying to trace his steps. The incidents I referred to involved more than one brush with death. And having that kind of power isn't something I can advise. He wanted more power to accomplish a goal of his, and it led to his death."

Louise and the maid just look at me and I can't tell if they're shocked because of what I just told them, or something else entirely.

"Sorry for just going off on a tangent like that," I turn to the maid. "I don't believe you ever told me you name."

The maid still looks shocked, but she shakes it off. "I-I'm Siesta. What's your name?"

"Shana. Call me Shana."

Siesta bows and gives me a smile. "Nice to meet you! Sorry, but I have to go get these dishes to the kitchen. See you again!" and with that, she walks past us and continues on her way.

I stand where I am for a minute, reminiscing about Yuji, when Louise turns to me.

"Shana, you were talking about Yuji weren't you?"

I nod. "Yes. He needed more power to see his goal to completion, and that's what led him to betray us."

"Do you know what he wanted to accomplish?"

"Well, it may not have been entirely his goal. He fused himself with a powerful being," Alastor begins.

"That god that you mentioned during the fight with Wardes?" Louise asks.

"Yes. My understanding is that the being, known as the Snake of the Festival, had a negative view of the world. He wanted to destroy the world and then rebuild it into what he viewed as a utopia, a place where Flame Haze and Guze no longer needed to fight."

Louise looks a little shocked. "A-and why did Yuji go along with this? Did he really think that destroying the world was a good idea?"

"He said he wanted to do it so that we could be together forever," I tell Louise, the sadness in my voice painfully obvious.

Louise looks at me stunned. I get that reaction from everyone I tell that too, even if I have only told a few people about it.

Without saying a word I start walking back to Louise's room. I pass through the courtyard and notice something sitting in the middle of the courtyard. I stand still and look at it.

"What's that doing here?" Alastor asks.

"I don't know, but someone has to."

"Shana? What's wrong?" Louise asks before noticing the airplane sitting in the middle of the courtyard.

"What is that? I've never seen anything like it before."

"It's an airplane. It's from my world. More specifically, I believe its called a zero fighter," I tell Louise.

I see Mr. Colbert talking with the headmaster. I run up to the two of them.

"Hey! Where did you find this?"

They look startled then turn to me.

"Ah, you're miss Valliere's familiar, right?" Mr. Colbert asks.

"I wouldn't say that's important right now. Where did you find this?" I ask them angrily. I don't even know why I'm angry. Maybe it has something to do with finding an artifact from Japan. The fact that its here could be potentially dangerous. If an airplane could be here, then there was a chance that a dangerous treasure tool could already be in someone's hands. This could be very bad.

Colbert takes a step back. "I-I found it in the town of Tardes. Why do you ask?"

I ignore him for a second and step up to the plane. I place my hand on it, and I notice a glow on my left hand. I see the runes that were put on my hand when the contract was formed are currently glowing. Suddenly information starts flooding my brain. This was definitely a zero fighter. It was in working condition but need gasoline. Several of the parts were also in less then perfect condition. How did I know all this?

I turn to Colbert and the headmaster. "This is a zero fighter. I asked where you got it because its not from this world. It's from mine."

Colbert gasps, and the Headmaster just looks a little shocked. "Wh-what? Another world?"

I nod. "Yes. This is a plane. In my world its used to fly. Before you ask, no it can't fly at the moment. It needs gasoline, though I suppose you wouldn't know what that is."

A smell I recognize reaches my nose, and I investigate where the planes fuel tank would be. I notice a liquid is dripping out of it.

"Anyone got an empty bottle of some kind?" I ask. Colbert hands me a flask and I use it to catch a solid amount of the gas leaking from the Zero Fighter.

I hand the vial to Colbert. "Here. If you can make more of this, than we can get the Zero Fighter to fly. If you're really curious about this thing, then I suggest you get working on it."

Colbert turns around and runs off. Headmaster turns around with the intent to walk away, but he's not getting off that easily.

"You stay right there. I have some questions for you."

"Shana, you can't just interrogate the faculty like that, especially not the headmaster!" Louise says.

"No, no. Its quite all right. I think I already know what that question is. You want to know about those runes on your hand, don't you... Shana, was it?" The headmaster says.

I nod. "As soon as I touched the zero fighter the runes lit up and I instantly knew everything there was to know about it. I may not know what powers a familiar gets when they form the contract, but I know that this definitely isn't something that happens often."

The headmaster nods. "Indeed. Those runes of yours are special. They are the Gandalfar runes."

"Gandalfar?" Asks Louise. "Wasn't that one of Founder Brimr's familiar? Are you saying Shana is Brimr's familiar?"

"Shhh," Says the headmaster. "Not so loud, we're trying to keep this a secret. Anyway, no. She's not the Founder's familiar. She simply has the same capabilities as the previous Gandalfar."

"Those capabilities being?" I ask while raising an eyebrow.

"If the legends are to be believed, then Gandalfar could use any weapon with ease. When he picked up a weapon, the runes would glow and he knew just how to use the weapon. That's why you knew about the zero fighter just by touching it. Anyway, like I said, this is secret information. Try not to tell anyone." Then he turns around and walks away.

*Scene Break*

About two weeks passed since Louise and I became familiar with the Gandalfar runes. Louise took the news pretty well. She only freaked out about having the most powerful familiar in existence for the first day or two. I spent a good part of those two weeks testing to see the extent of the Gandalfar powers.

It turns out, they were pretty potent. I never noticed, but now when I held a weapon, my base speed increased several fold. Also, the headmaster wasn't kidding when he I should be able to use any weapon with ease. Nietono no Shana wasn't a good example, considering I had been using it for years so I already knew a lot about it, but Blutsager and the zero fighter confirmed it. I even borrowed a few knives from the kitchen to check if they were considered weapons. Apparently they were, and I knew just the right way to use them.

The weeks went on and nothing else happened. I noticed for the first time that almost all of the student body tried to avoid me as much as possible whenever I was walking around the academy. Why could that be? I haven't tried to kill anyone yet, so I didn't really see a reason they should be afraid. The only students that actually seemed intent on seeking me out were the ones that went with us to Albion. Those four being Kirche, Tabitha, and Guiche and Montmorency. These four were the only ones who didn't seem to be terrified of me, a fact that greatly pleases me. I hate it when people seem terrified and I never even threatened them.

I wasn't too fond of Kirche, I found her constant blabberings likening herself to a passionate fire to be almost a little blasphemous all things considered, but I liked Tabitha. She was quiet and only talked on an as needed basis. I found it all rather comforting that there was someone in this world other than Louise who I could have a nice, albeit one-sided, conversation with. Guiche still seamed a frightened of me, but as far as I could tell he was only trying to get Montmorency to love him, so I had no reason to try and kill him.

Speaking of whom, Montmorency wasn't that bad either. She seemed almost like a regular girl from back home. I could easily see her being friends with some of the people back in Misaki City. Still, there was someone I wanted to talk to.

"Hey, Louise, do you know where Siesta lives?" I don't know why, but I felt really comfortable when I was talking to her. Maybe it was the feeling of familiarity.

Louise didn't even bat an eye at my rather abrupt question and started pondering. "Um... I think heard one of the chefs say she went home to Tardes."

"Isn't that where they found the Zero Fighter?" Alastor asks.

She nods. "Yeah. Do you want to go visit her?"

Before I can respond someone knocks on the door.

"Its open," I tell them.

Mr. Colbert walks in. "Louise, the Headmaster requests your presence. He says it's urgent."

Louise and I get up and head towards the Headmaster's office.

*Scene Break*

"Well, at least now you have an excuse for ditching classes and heading for Tardes," Alastor tells Louise.

"Right, I'm sure all the teachers will except 'It was for inspiration for the edict!' as a valid excuse," says Louise.

We were currently on our way to Tardes to visit Siesta. The headmaster had given Louise the founder's prayer book, and told her that she was picked to write the edict for the princess' wedding. We used that as an excuse to leave the academy and head for Tardes. We had ridden on horseback for about 3 hours and were now walking towards the village on foot, since we were almost there. It wasn't much longer that we saw a village. We approached it and saw Siesta almost immediately.

"Miss Valliere! Shana!" Cries Siesta as soon as she sees us. "I got a letter saying you were coming to visit!"

"Yeah. Louise has to write an edict for the princess' wedding, so we decided to travel around for inspiration. I suggested we stop by here for a bit. We thought maybe you could help us out," I tell her.

Siesta smiles, "I'd love to help! Though I'm not very good with poetic things, I can do my best!" I really did like talking with Siesta. She was just such an easy person to talk to.

However, the conversation never quite went anywhere. Right after Siesta said that, an explosion went off somewhere in the village.

*Louise POV*

"What was that?" I ask, scared. Were we being invaded? Apparently it was the day of the harvest or something, because no one was in the village. Good, if we were being invaded then it's good that no one was here.

"I'm going to go investigate," Shana says while calmly walking towards where the explosion had gone off.

"Hey! Is anyone there?" I faintly hear someone shout out from the direction Shana was walking towards.

Shana freezes in place.

"Shana? What's wrong?" She looks somewhere between terrified and sad.

"It can't be," she says almost to herself.

Without even bothering to answer my question, she starts doing her super jumps to cover ground more quickly. I don't know why she's acting the way she is, or what caused the explosion but there's something about the whole situation. I have a feeling that things aren't going to be pretty. Unsure of what to do, I run after Shana, leaving Siesta behind to wonder just what was happening.

*Elsewhere*

"I'll admit, I feel a little sorry for the guy," A whitish-blonde haired girl with mismatched eyes said to herself. "First the summoning, then the other summoning, now this. Well, sorry, but it's kind of something I had to do. I'm sure none of you will mind. Heck, if you knew me, you'd probably thank me later. As it stands, I'm currently just the girl talking to herself and pulling the strings from behind the curtain."

From the midst of the explosion, a giant smoke cloud was formed. As the dust cloud formed, the girl saw the figure of a man wearing a familiar jacket stand up. Then a girl with burning red hair, wearing a black coat jumped up from behind a building, landed in front of the man and pointed a nodachi at his throat.

The girl with the mismatched eyes laughed to herself. "And a beautiful first impression! This'll be fun."


	5. Arrival

**Arrival**

I was proud of myself. For once, something bad had happened, and it wasn't my fault. Louise and I had been training her spells and thought to try out her newest one.

"Are you sure about this Saito? I'm not all too familiar with it," said Louise.

"Hey, teleport worked once. If we can figure out how to use it well enough, that it could be a valuable asset, right?"

Okay, maybe it was my fault for encouraging her with that statement. As soon as she cast the spell, an explosion happened, and I blacked out for a few seconds. _Ah, its been so long since her magic caused an explosion on accident. Its almost nostalgic,_ said my inner monologue.

When I came to, I noticed that there was a lot of smoke around. I checked myself and saw no visible injuries, and I still had Katana Derflinger strapped to my back and I didn't appear to be missing any limbs. I looked to my right and saw Louise lying face down. I checked her pulse and felt her heartbeat, so everything was fine.

I stand up and look around. Judging by the way the buildings are set up, I'd say we were in Tardes. _Well, I guess the spell worked. _'Yeah, but we should check around anyway, just to be safe. For all we know I was knocked unconscious and I'm dreaming.' _Weirder things have happened, and weirder things are bound to happen._

"Hey! Is anyone there?" I shout out. My response comes about 14 seconds later, and its a sword pointed at my throat.

"Where is he? Where's Yuji?"

I look to see who's holding the sword and am shocked. The one holding the sword couldn't be anymore than twelve years old. She was wearing what looked like a solid black jumpsuit, and a long black cloak. Her hair was a deep crimson, and I mistook it for fire for a few seconds. Her eyes may not have been fire, but they were close. I could already tell that this girl could, and was ready to, kill me.

_OH MY GOD! Holy Crap! It's Shana! It's the freaking Burning Eyed Hunter herself! Saito! I've never asked anything of you before, get me this girls autograph! Please! _'What? Who? Shana? Autograph? What the hell are you talking about?' _Less questions more autographs! Quickly, before she leaves!_

"I'm not in the mood right now! Where's Yuji?" The girl apparently named Shana asks again.

_Wait, Yuji's not with her? Odd. _'Why's that name sound familiar?' _I'm sure she'll mention it at some point._

"I'm sorry, I don't know who you're talking about. I don't know anyone named Yuji," I say in as calming a voice as I can with a sword pointed at my throat.

Shana drops her sword and just looks at me, the killing intent is replaced with what looks like surprise and confusion. "You sound just like him," she says almost whispering.

"What? I sound like who? Are you okay? You look a little pale." Then she falls to her knees and I think I see a few tears.

_You bastard! How dare you make Shana cry! I will now have to assault your mind with all sorts of disgusting imagery! _'I haven't done anything! All I did was say I don't know anyone named Yuji.'_ Shame on you! That's arguably an even worse offense!_

"Shana!" Came a voice that shouldn't be talking.

I looked towards the voice and saw her running towards us. _Louise is there too? Crap! The world can barely handle one half pint, flat chested tsundere, how do they expect us to deal with three at the same time? _'Can you please just start speaking in a manner that makes sense? What the hell are you rambling about?'

The other Louise kneels down and starts trying to console Shana. Then she notices I'm there and death glares at me.

"Who are you and what did you do to her?" The other Louise asks angrily.

I hold up my hands in a peace gesture. "I didn't do anything! I accidentally stumbled through here and she put a sword to my throat and demanded to know where some guy named Yuji was."

Other Louise glares at me unconvinced, then something else weird happens. "He's right Louise, he didn't do anything to Shana and he does sound identical to Yuji. It's actually kind of scary," says a voice from nowhere.

Other Louise nods, "Alright, thank you Alastor."

"Sorry if it sounds weird, but could you show me her left hand?" If what I thought was there was there, than I might just have the answer I needed.

Other Louise raises an eyebrow, but obliges. Surprising no one, Shana has the Gandalfar runes.

"Just a question, has Albion gone to war with Tristain yet?" I knew where I was, now I just needed to know when I was. _Can't say any of that's a question I ever thought you'd have to ask._

"What? What war? It was just taken over, why would they go to war?" other Louise says, giving me the answer I was fully expecting.

The realization of what just happened causes me to break down laughing and I fall on my back.

"Perfect! Just perfect! Amazing! Fantastic! I wanted to go through all of this again! Am I just cursed to relive these moments over and over again?" Yeah, I was somehow sent back in time to a point in the past. Again.

"W-what are you talking about? Who are you?" other Louise asks. In response I sit up and show her my runes and she gasps.

"I'm like her."

"Wha-what? How are you a Gandalfar too? Who's familiar are you?" Ah, good, she knew about Gandalfar. At least that hasn't changed.

"To answer your first question, my name is Saito Hiraga," considering we were back in time, again, I didn't have my title or land yet, so I just used my regular name. "As for who my master is-"

As if on cue, my Louise wakes up. "Huh? Saito? What's going on?" Then she looks around and notices Shana and the other Louise. The Louises lock eyes and just look at each other for about a minute. Louise from this time has a look of confusion and fear across her face, and Louise from my time has a look of realization. Then the other Louise, and even Shana, faints.

"Huh, this is interesting. By the way, to cut down on introductions, I'm Alastor. I'm the pendant." I notice that Shana is indeed wearing a pendant. _Oh my god she even has Alastor with her! I can die a happy man now. _'How the hell do you know all this?' _You'll find out when you're older._

"Louise, pick yourself up, I'll grab Shana." I tell the Louise from my time.

"Who?"

"The girl with the-" Then I notice her hair has changed color and is now black. Her sword and coat are gone too. "Color changing hair."

"What?"

"We all have a lot to talk about. Maybe we should head back to the academy."

*Elsewhere*

"... Do they really sound that similar?" The girl with the mismatched eyes wondered to herself. "I probably should have thought this through a bit more. ... No! What's necessary is necessary! Either way, I should probably follow them a bit. Just to make sure nothing goes terribly wrong and I can always step in if absolutely necessary."

With that, the girl with the mismatched eyes steps out of her hiding place and silently follows the group. Along the way, she had a thought.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just give myself some wings and fly after them? I hear flying's fun. Haven't tried it myself. ... Next time. No need for showing off."

That discussion out of the way, the wingless girl with mismatched eyes proceeded to silently tail the group of four.

*Scene Break*

*Saito POV*

Louise and I carried Shana and the other Louise for a while until they woke up. I used that time while the two were unconscious to explain the situation to my Louise, who reacted more calmly than I expected. From there we walked back to the academy. From what I could gather, they were here visiting Siesta, and had just gotten the zero fighter. _Good, now we have a more specific point of reference._

No one said anything throughout the entire walk back. The other Louise looked back at the Louise from my time, but said nothing. Shana was the one that I worried about though. She would keep looking at me and seemed unsure whether to cry or kill me. Quite frankly, she scared me. I kept hearing her mutter something about Yuji again and again. I couldn't shake the feeling that the name was familiar somehow.

When we got back to Louise's room, other Louise and Shana sat on the bed and gave me and Louise a duel death glare.

"Who are you and why do you have another Louise with you?" Asks the Louse from this time.

I look at my Louise, silently asking if we should tell them, and she nods. "Well, simply put, we're from the future, well I am. This appears to be more of an alternate timeline than an actual time travel," I tell the two of them.

"What?" The other Louise looks incredibly surprised, but Shana just nods, almost like she expected it.

"As for who we are, I already believe you're already acquainted with Louise. I'm this Louise's familiar, Saito Hiraga." _You forgot to mention that she's your lover. _'You really think I'm going to just go around and introduce myself as Louise's lover?' _I would. I can only imagine what their reactions would be!_

Louise from this time stares at me, almost like she's nurturing an idea. Before I can let her fully form that idea I speak up.

"Before anyone says anything, we need a way to identify the two different Louises by name. Just saying Louise will cause confusion."

"Louise with Saito as a familiar is Louise 1, and the Louise with Shana is Louise 2. Is that okay with everyone?" says Alastor. Everyone nods.

Then Louise 2 voices her idea. "What do you mean by you're from the future, but other Louise isn't?"

"Like Saito said, this is probably an alternate timeline, as evidenced by Shana being your familiar and not Saito," begins Louise 1. "In my timeline, Saito was from the future. In his timeline he was still my famliar. So, in total, this will be his third time experiencing these events. Is that about right Saito?"

I nod. "Yep, I have the pleasure of getting to experience all of this for the third time."

Louise 2 and Shana just stare at us. I guess they weren't expecting that answer. To be fair, neither was I. My life just keeps getting weirder as the days go on. What'll happen if there's a fourth time I have to go through all of this? Will I be the mage, and Louise my familiar? Or maybe I'll get to summon Shana as a familiar. Maybe I'll be pulled into a timeline where seahorses rule the world. The possibilities are freaking endless!

I see Louise 2 lean over and whisper something into Shana's ear. I can only make out a few words, but it sounds like she's whispering something about a feeling, and a person. _I'll make of that what I will. _'I doubt she means that kind of feeling.' _Like I said, I'll make of it what I will, and you'll make of it what you will._

"Before we go on, Shana was it? What's your story? What happened before you were brought here?" Louise 1 asks.

Shana sighs. "This is a long story, so I'll give the short version. Pay attention, it goes over a lot of people's heads." Louise 1 and I nod to show we're listening.

*Scene Break*

'What the heeeell?'My head was spinning from everything she just told us. Flame haze and Guze and swords and fires. But it explained why I thought Yuji was a familiar name. It was a Japanese name. Shana came from my world. _Told you. _'No you didn't! You never mentioned she was from Japan!' _No, but I did say that she'd tell you. Points for me! _'Damn you.'

"So you have access to all sorts of fire based powers?" I ask her.

She nods and Louise 2 speaks up, clearly excited. "Shana's amazing! She can shoot flames from her sword, which she can pull out of nowhere and have it disappear without a trace! She can also fly, or jump incredibly high, and even freeze time!"

At that last one my jaw dropped. "You kidding, right?"

Shana's response is to toss a pillow in the air.

"Fuzetsu." Then everything goes red and the pillow stops in midair.

"Whoa." I'm too shocked to even come up with a better reaction than that.

"Shana, I've been wondering, why aren't we affected by it? Why is everything, and everyone else frozen, but we aren't?" Asks Louise 2.

Wait, everyone in this thing freezes? Not just objects?

"It doesn't affect anyone related to the flame haze," says Alastor.

"So it doesn't affect Louise 2 because Shana's her familiar, therefore making it so that she isn't affected by it," Louise 1 says.

Shana nods. "That is correct." She snaps her fingers and everything goes back to its original colors, and the pillow hits the floor. I silently wonder if she has to snap to fix everything or if she just does it for show.

"Then why doesn't it affect me or Louise 1?" I ask.

Shana ponders for a moment. "My guess is that it doesn't affect the other Louise because she's still Louise. Despite being from another dimension she's still the same person, so the Fuzetsu doesn't affect her."

"And me?"

"It doesn't affect Saito because he's Louise's familiar too, therefore forming a sort of distant relationship," Alastor tells us.

I nod, despite that whole explanation pretty much being built on a loophole, it still made sense in a way. Then I remember what I really wanted to ask Shana about.

"Shana, I have to ask, who's Yuji?" It was a question I instantly regretted asking.

Shana looks down, almost looking like she's saddened, and no one says anything.

"I get it, touchy subject. Forget I asked."

"I loved him," I hear Shana say.

'What? This girl fell in love with someone?' _Not too surprising, Louise wasn't that different from this girl the first time around, remember?' '_Yeah, I guess.' _Still, I don't like the way she's acting. She seems a little too sad._

"It didn't go well? You sound really sad." Louise 1 says.

"He's dead," begins Louise 2, "He betrayed Shana and everyone else. Shana didn't have any other choice." Then there was silence.

_Damn it! Way to spoil the last book for me!_ 'What book?' _Something only I need to care about considering she just spoiled the ending for me. Damn it!_

"Um... Sorry if it sounds insensitive, but did he at least give you a good reason?" I ask.

"He said he wanted to do it so we could be together forever," Shana says sadly.

Well crap. Now I just felt sorry for her. It must suck to kill someone you love and who loved you back. I try to think of something to change the subject, and I notice how late it is.

"Wow, its late! We better get to bed. You three can take the bed or something, I'll sleep on the floor. Goodnight!" I curl up on the spot on the floor I usually slept on, and try my best to go to sleep to avoid that conversation we just had. I hear the bed creak a little, so I look and see that the three of them are asleep on the bed.

'As scary as she can be, I feel sorry for her.'_ Didn't we just have this conversation?_ 'Yeah, but still. Her life must have sucked.'

As much as I hate the feeling of repetition from having this conversation again, I can't help but agree. I genuinely felt sorry for Shana. I decided to put this thought aside for now and focus on the current situation. So, Louise 1 and I were sent back in time? It was probably the botched teleport spell, I probably shouldn't have pushed her to try it.

_Amazing. She tried to teleport us somewhere and failed so epicly that she tore a hole in the fabric of the universe. You almost have to try to fail that hard. _'Let's not tell Louise that. I don't think it would make her feel any better. I just can't believe my luck.' _I can't believe your luck either. You get to go through all of this again, and you even have two Louises now!_ 'I'm glad you're happy, because I'm not. All this sucked the first time I wound up in a time warp, and now I get to do it all again.' I decide I should worry about it later and I go to sleep.

*Louise 1 POV*

I had a difficult time getting to sleep. I just couldn't believe that I was back in time. Did Saito feel like this when I summoned him? How could he take everything so well, while I was trying my best not to panic? I blame his optimism.

I also wasn't quite comfortable with the idea of three people sharing a bed. Shana slept in the middle of the bed, Louise 2 on her right, and me on her left. I guess it was alright, considering we were all girls, but I didn't quite feel safe being so near Shana. Something about that girl scared me.

"Louise?" Asked Louise 2.

"Yes, Louise 2?"

"What's going on between you and Saito?"

I instantly blush. "W-what do you mean?"

"Do you love him?" asks Shana.

"Wh-what's with that question?" asks Louise 2, of all people.

"Its obvious. The two of them seem incredibly close, just like..." Then her voice trails off.

Unsure how to react, I simply nod. "Yes. I do," I have a small internal debate over whether to continue, but I decide lying to them and leaving out details isn't going to get me any trust. "I do love him, and..." I hesitate.

"And... What?" asks Louise 2.

I blush a little more. "We're married," I say in a small voice.

"I'm sorry, what?" says Louise 2, "I don't believe I heard that correctly, it sounded like you said you two were married."

"I-I did."

A blush instantly crosses Louise 2 and Shana's face.

"W-wait, does that mean that you and him... I mean him and me..." Louise 2 whispers the rest of her question.

Embarrassed, I nod my head, causing Louise 2 to pass out. Shana looks at me confused.

"What was her question?" She asks in a confused voice.

I lean over and whisper into her ear what Louise 2 asked. Shana freezes up and does what I assume is her equivalent to passing out, effectively ending any possible attempt at conversation.

"Um... Good night." I tell the two of them before turning over and going to sleep myself. This was definitely going to be an interesting time.


	6. War

Author Notes:

I don't really have anything interesting to add. Read, review, leave feedback, and enjoy the story!

**War**

When I woke up, I stood up and checked the bed. Like I expected, there were two Louises and a Shana. Why can't it ever just be a bad dream and not the terrifying reality? _Because that would be too easy._

"Why do you sound like him?"

"Shana? You're up?" Apparently she got up early. Not surprising, familiars tend to wake up before their masters. Its almost like it was included in the contract that was formed.

She sits up and nods. "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday, with the sword. I heard you and I thought-"

"I understand. I would have reacted the same way if I thought I heard a dead loved one."

Shana closes her eyes, like she's remembering something.

"So what's your world like Shana?" One of the Louises asks as she sits up.

Before Shana can answer, I notice something out the window and look. I see a guy riding a horse approaching the academy. He dismounts, and starts running towards what I already know to be the headmaster's office. By this point the other Louise is up and looks at me.

"Is it that time already?" She asks, sleepily.

I nod. "Seems so."

"What? Time for what?" Asks the Louise who woke up first.

_Talking to the two of them is going to absolutely suck. _'It'll be easier once they get ready. Louise 1 has the purple mantle the princess gave her, remember?' _And what happens when Louise 2 gets that purple mantle? _'... Louise 1 switches to the black mantle?'

"Follow me and you'll find out," I tell the group.

We get ready and head for the headmaster's office, and press our ears to the door. What I expected to hear, is what we all hear.

"Albion has declared war on Tristain! They're army is heading for Tardes as we speak!" I hear the messenger say.

Louise 2 pales at the mention of war, and Shana pales at the mention of Tardes. I guess she and Siesta were friends or something.

"And now you know." I tell the two of them before running off towards the Zero Fighter.

*Scene Break*

Apparently the Zero Fighter was brought here by Louise 2 and Shana a few weeks ago, and they were just in Tardes to see Siesta, because the thing was in near perfect condition, and Colbert had already made the gasoline. Shana asked him to fill the Fighter up, after all I couldn't ask him, he's never seen me before in this timeline.

"Hey Shana, are you taking this or should I?" I really want to fly the Zero Fighter into battle again, but if she wants to, then she should. It is technically her timeline after all.

She shakes her head. "You can fly it. Just make sure to take out those forces and protect Tardes."

I smile. "Of course I will."

"Louise 2, do you have the founder's prayer book with you?" Asks Louise 1.

She nods her head. "I do, why do you ask?"

"You should go with Saito in the Zero Fighter!"

"What?" Is her, Shana, and Alastor's reply.

"Its a prayer book right? You should-"

"Don't you dare steal my line! I said that last time!" There were a lot of things I could tolerate, but stealing my lines is not one of them.

Louise 1 blushes. "Sorry. Anyway, go on. It'll be a good experience for you."

Louise 2 looks a little scared, but she climbs behind the seat of the Zero fighter, and I climb in after her.

"See you later Louise and Shana. Have a nice, fun girly talk or something to pass the time, alright?" I close the cockpit just fast enough to block the small stone Louise 1 threw at me. I start up the plane, make sure everything's running properly, then begin take off. The plane takes off just before we hit the wall, and we start flying.

To her credit, Louise 2 didn't scream like Louise 1 did when the Zero Fighter took off so suddenly. Instead, she wrapped her arms around me, almost for comfort. If what she said was true, and Shana could fly, Louise 2 was probably already familiar with sudden take offs, and was probably just scared that this thing could fly at all. I turn the plane and aim it towards Tardes and begin the flight. I should probably start thinking of more witty things to say, considering it would be cheap if I just repeated the same lines as last time.

*Louise 1 POV*

I watched the Zero Fighter fly away until it was out of sight. Even knowing the outcome of the battle, I couldn't help but worry. Something could always go wrong. Eventually Shana turns to me.

"Why did you volunteer Louise 2 for the flight? You must have had a good reason for it," Shana says.

"How much do you know about her magic?" I ask her.

Alastor is the first to speak up. "We don't have solid proof, but we believe her magic is tied to Void." _These two are smart. They were able to figure it out on their own._

"Well, the proof comes out on this mission. Sometime during the flight, she'll unlock her magic and use it to destroy the Albion fleet."

Shana stares at me, surprised. "It's that powerful?"

I nod. "Yep. Using just the one spell the prayer book gives her, she'll be able to completely annihilate the air fleet."

Shana shakes her head slowly, clearly surprised at the power her master holds. Maybe its my imagination, but I think she looks worried for a second.

"Don't worry, Saito will be able to protect her using the fighter, and the spell won't have any negative side effects." I tell her, trying to calm her.

She sighs. "I envy you."

_What? Where'd that come from?_ "Um... May I ask what for?"

"You have him. He reminds me so much of Yuji." Oh, that was it.

"You really miss him, don't you? It almost like he's all you can think about."

She lowers her head a little. "I'm ashamed of myself. I just can't stop remembering what I did. I hate myself for it. Then Saito shows up and..." Her voice trails off.

I place a reassuring hand on her shoulder and try my best to console her. "Hey, its okay. We all have to do things we're not proud of. You did what you had to do. It could only be worse if you didn't stop him. But that's the past, and this is the now. You have all these new friends around, interact with them and try to move on." I felt a little cruel telling her to forget about the guy she loved, but it was a necessary course of action.

Shana smiles and looks up at the sky. "You're right. I really do need to move on. I just can't. Still, thank you Louise."

After that we look up at the sky in silence, waiting for the Zero Fighter to return.

*Saito POV*

We were on route to Tardes so Louise 2 and I had some time to talk. Apparently in this time, nothing much changed, except for the complete ease that Shana dealt with everything. I could literally feel my newfound inferiority complex grow about three times as Louise 2 rattle off Shana's accomplishments. Was this how Louise felt whenever someone insulted her breasts? _There's no proof that you're Louise feels that way. _'Because I never bothered testing it. I happen to like my crotch the way it is, not being kicked by Louise.'

I sighed. "If I may be completely honest, I am incredibly jealous."

"Of what?"

"Shana of course! She can do all these amazing things, shoot fire, fly and freeze time. She handled everything with such ease! I can't do anything without the Gandalfar power, and even when I knew what was coming, I couldn't deal with anything as easily as she could. I feel so inferior right now."

Louise 2 responded by wrapping her arms around me. I feel a little light headed.

"Don't be sad. You may not be able to do everything Shana can," _Not helping. _"But you have your Louise right? Honestly, I'm jealous of her."

"What? How so?" _Is this whole thing just going to be one big jealousy fest? If so then count me out. That sounds boring._

"Well, she gets you. You may just be a normal human, but at least she has someone she loves. I don't have anyone like that."

I think of how lucky I am to have Louise 1 as my master. Its definitely true, I really can't complain all things considered.

"Thanks Louise 2. I feel much better know. How about we go protect Tardes?"

She nods enthusiastically. That's good to know. Its always good to have a volunteer for things like this. It cuts away on the guilt when you have them do something dangerous.

*Scene Break*

We reached Tardes pretty quickly and saw the air fleet that was invading. There's one giant ship, and about 13 dragon knights. I had one of the dragons knights in my sights and got ready to begin the firefight.

"You're not seriously thinking about attacking them, are you? They're the best dragon knights in the world!" Says Louise 2.

"Of course not. I'm thinking about whatever deity control the universe and why it finds the idea of sending me back in time over and over again hilarious. What I'm doing is flying this plane in there and taking out every single one of those dragon knights."

"You must be joking."

"You wish."

Then I pull the trigger and watch as the dragon falls to the ground. Before the others and begin to wonder what just happened, I turn the plane and take out the wings of two more. The other ten have caught on that I'm an actually threat and begin to fly after me. I decide to try some fancy moves to spice things up and throw them off my tail, so I do a giant loop and wind up flying behind one of them. I pull the trigger, but this time I hit the guy and not the dragon. Oops. I'll worry about it later.

The fight continues on until only one remains. Only one poor dragon knights against a zero fighter. This was going to be easy. Unfortunately, that one knight happened to be an amazing flyer, and didn't look happy. I could try my strategy that worked last time, but that wouldn't be any fun twice in a row. I play a little game of cat and mouse with him on my tail for a bit, waiting for the right moment.

"Screw it," I grab a wrench and throw it out the side of the cockpit. It hits him in the head and he falls down. _Boring._

"That was an interesting way of dealing with him," says Louise 2.

"Interesting yes, entertaining, no. I was hoping to get him in a more creative way, but he was giving me too much trouble," I grumble. I really wish that rider wouldn't have pushed me to that. It was such a boring strategy, even if it worked.

"Still, is there anything I can do? I feel like I'm just here for show." Then the founder's prayer book starts glowing.

'... ACK! I've run out of snide comments!'

"Just read the damn book," I tell Louise 2, silently cursing myself for not being able to think of anything to say.

Louise 2 opens the book and stop on one page. I see her eyes darken, and she climbs over the seat and sits down.

"Pilot the Dragon's Raiment over the ship. I can take it from there," she says in that creepy monotone voice she gets when she's possessed by something.

I oblige and pilot the Zero Fighter over Albion's ship. I do my best to avoid the cannon shots being fired at us, and keep us steady in the cannon's blind spot. Some more dragon knights are deployed, and I shoot them down. _Any day now Louise, we could really use that void magic right about now._

As if she heard him, at the moment, Louise 2 finishes her spell and points her wand at the air ship. It explodes in a bright light, and then disappears. I'd be more impressed if this wasn't the third time I've seen that ship disappear. It got old pretty quickly. Her magic used up, Louise 2 collapses and leans against me. I open my mouth to congratulate her, but I notice she's asleep. I smile and pat her head.

"Great job again Louise. Get some rest, you'll need it. Let's go home for now."

I turn the Zero Fighter around and head back to the academy.

*Scene Break*

*Shana POV*

We heard the Zero Fighter before we saw it. Once we did, Louise 1 and I stood up and began looking for it. It came down and landed near us, so we ran towards it. Saito opened up the cockpit and climbed out holding Louise 2.

"Why's she passed out?" I ask him.

He smiles, and I feel a pain in my chest for some reason. "Louise 2 is now the newest user of void."

I nod and turn to Louise 1. "You were right. What was her first spell?"

"Would you believe, explosion?" Saito says.

"No way. You're kidding me."

"No, really! Took out the ship and the reinforcements with one blow. Vanished without a trace."

"Stop messing with me. Tell me the truth."

"I am telling the truth! I guess people here just aren't as trusting as they were back in the day." He says while shrugging.

"Urusai, urusai, urusai!" It might just have been my imagination but I thought that I heard a voice crying out in joy for some reason, but it was so faint that I dismissed it. The conversation ends there and we head back to the Louise's room.

Later that night, I was thinking to myself. Louise 1, 2 and myself were asleep in the bed, and Saito was on the floor on the pile of hay he picked up from the stables. I make sure the Louises are asleep, and I sit up, and look at Saito. I feel a sharp pang in my left side, but I don't know what's causing it.

"Why? Why is he so similar?" I ask myself.

I lie back down and try to sleep, but my mind doesn't let me. I keep wondering how two completely different people can be so similar. I just didn't understand.


	7. Love

Author Notes:

Yes, occasionally referring to either Louise as just "Louise," does create confusion, and yes, it was intentional. Its a first person story, and if Saito doesn't know which Louise is talking, then neither do you or me.

There's once sentence during the princess rescue that I never thought I'd ever have to type, but I wound up typing it. The thing about my writing style is that I don't really plan things out. I type the story as it comes to me, so I often wind up writing lines of dialogue and I never even notice that they're there until after I've written them. That was one of those lines. Trust me, you'll know what line I'm talking about. Read, review, leave feedback, and enjoy the story!

**Love**

_Are you serious? Again? You have got to stop doing this, it's freaking shameless. And towards Shana as well. _'Its not my fault! I don't exactly have psychic powers to drag people around, do I?'

When I woke up I found Shana asleep right next to me in my haystack. Unlike the second time around where Louise, who can only sleep in her night clothes without panties, snuck into my haystack and pulled my arm around her, this time Shana, who wears nothing but her underwear to sleep, had HER arm around ME.

_You know she's going to kill you when she wakes up, right?_ 'Yeah. There is no way I can talk my way out of this.'

"Ah, you're awake."

"Alastor? Sorry! I didn't meant to do anything! I just woke up and she was like this! At least I don't think I did anything."

He starts chuckling. "Its so nostalgic I could almost cry."

"What? She's done this before?"

"Yes. Guess who's bed she crawled into on accident." Despite Alastor being the equivalent of a god, I liked talking to him. He was pretty easygoing.

"What? She crawled into Yuji's bed too?"

As if responding to the conversation, Shana choses that moment to wake up. She sits up, stretches, then notices me. Her face is a look of blank surprise, then she looks down and realizes what she's wearing.

"Um... I'd like to take this moment to say that I didn't do anything on purpose, and if you're going to kill me, please make it quick," I say and close my eyes. Luckily Shana is merciful, and doesn't kill me. Of course, being brought to the point of near death isn't much better, but I'd heal. The ruckus woke the Louises up, who just stared at the spot on the floor where I was twitching pitifully.

I hear Louise tsking, "Again Saito? They just can't help but do this to you, can they?"

"Shut up. Its not my fault people decide to do this." I sit up to the best of my ability. Shana is sitting in the corner glaring at me, luckily she's got her clothes on again.

"What? What happened?" I hear what I assume to be the other Louise say.

"If I had to guess, I'd say Shana woke up today to find herself in Saito's haystack on accident," says Louise.

"W-what!" then the Louise I assume to be Louise 2 gets up and kicks me in the crotch. _You have my sympathy._

"How dare you do that to her! How could you do that to Shana?" Before I can try to explain what happened, she kicks me again. Perfect, I just love being absolutely killed by Louise. This is exactly what I wanted. _Was that sarcasm? _'What do you think?' _Well all things considered- _'Shut up. Now.'

"Actually, this was all Shana. Saito did nothing to her, and was unaware that she was even there until he woke up." I hear Alastor say.

"Thank you, its good to have a witness to my innocence."

"But why would she do that? Its not like..." Louise's voice trails off. The two of them are still in there night clothes so I'm not able to differentiate the two of them.

"Well, according to Alastor, she did the same thing to Yuji once, so she probably did this now, thinking I was Yuji." I say. I look over to Shana who's blushing and looking like she's ready to kill me. Unsurprising, she came pretty close right about now.

One of the Louises eyes me, like she doesn't believe my story, and turns to the other Louise.

"Putting this conversation aside, Louise, would you mind training me?"

"W-What? Train you?" the Louise I assume to be Louise 1 asks.

"Well, you're a void mage too, aren't you? I just thought it would be nice to have a teacher who knew what they were doing."

I nod. "That's a great idea. Louise 1 will start training Louise 2 in the ways of the void, and Shana can teach me how to be better with a sword." I really don't want to spend to much time around her, I'm scared she's going to make several attempts on my life, but there's no denying how much better she at this than I am. It definitely wouldn't hurt having a teacher I can go all out on without worrying about hurting them.

Shana drops the glare and looks briefly saddened, but then nods. "That sounds good. I'll train you."

*Scene Break*

"I still regret this!" I said as Shana punched me in the face with enough force to send me flying through the academy wall.

The training had been going on for a few weeks. In those weeks I introduced myself to the rest of the academy, and went with Louise 2 and Shana to meet the princess. Louise 1 decided to stay behind since we didn't need to let anyone know about the existence of two Louises just yet. The princess was skeptical when I showed up, but Shana vouched for me. Louise 2 was made a member of the queen's court, Shana was made a chevalier in title only (Since she already had her coat she declined the awesome cape), and I got gold coins. _Why does Shana get more than we do? She didn't do anything! _'Maybe not, but as far as these people are concerned, she's nobility. Of course she'd get treated better than us.' _I guess. And this princess never saw us before now. This sucks._

Louise 1 and 2 were training further out from the academy to hide the fact that they were using void magic. Shana and I were worried about them being out there by themselves, but Louise 1 convinced us that she'd be able to handle it if something went wrong. Shana and I practiced just outside the academy's walls. As I had just said, I regretted asking Shana to train me. It wasn't that she was a bad teacher, she was too good. Even if I went all out with the Gandalfar powers, she could almost effortlessly defeat me. As a show of that, she punched me through the academy wall.

I flew past a table where Guiche and Montmorency were sitting having dinner. I introduced myself to them a few days ago, considering I'd have to make friends with everyone at some point. I might have gotten up and dumped the wine to prevent the first potion incident from happening, but I was in too much pain to move. Shana walked through the gaping hole in the wall and looked at me.

"Pathetic. How could you possibly get anything done?" she says while grabbing the glass of wine next to Guiche.

'Wait, don't do that!' Is what I would have said if I wasn't in too much pain to move. I'd actually be able to just stand up and smack the glass out of her hands if I could feel any part of my body. _Being punched through a foot thick stone wall tends to do that to most people_.

"At this rate you'll be dead before you make any progress at all," Shana says before drinking all the contents of the glass. _Don't panic, maybe Montmorency hasn't put the potion in the wine yet!_ Guiche and Montmorency just stared at the scene in front of them, almost as if they were betting on a winner.

"Now let's..." Then the killing intent left her eyes and was replaced by a look of... longing? _Crap. I knew that was asking the universe for too much._ 'I would have stopped her, but I can't really move at the moment.' _Don't lie, you just want the attention, don't you? _'After what happened last time? Absolutely not.'

Then Shana put her sword away, ran up to me and threw her arms around me and started crying.

"Yuij! Yuji! Why did you leave me! Why?" Well crap, now she really did think I was Yuji. This could be very bad. _Thank you for voicing the obvious._

"Um... Saito, was it? What just happened?" Asked Guiche.

I glare at Montmorency. Considering she doesn't know me that well, I doubt she'd be that intimidated by me, but I should probably try my best. "I will talk to you about this in the morning. Better start thinking of an explanation as to why that love potion was in the wine."

Montmorency's face pales, and Guiche's turns a nice shade of red. "W-what love potion?" Montmorency asks, trying to sound innocent.

The Louises chose that moment to drop by, coming in through the hole in the wall.

"Saito! I remembered what happened and... oh. Too late." Says Louise 1.

"Just a little bit."

"I take it you made this hole and were in too much pain to even try to stop it?"

"Bingo."

"Yuji! Why do you keep talking to Louise!" Shana starts crying some more and rubs her cheek against me. As the cute as the behavior is, it scares me. It just terrified me seeing the usually cold and distant Shana acting this love struck. It was like seeing a T-Rex planting flowers, the personalities just don't match.

"Um... What's happening?" Asks Louise 2.

"Tell you in a bit. Lets go back to the room." Luckily my need to get out of here and start thinking of a way to get Shana back to normal dulls out the pain. I get up and start walking back to Louise's room. Shana never lets go of me, so I have to drag her. Alastor remains silent. Why would that be?

When we got back to Louise's room I sit down on the floor, and the Louises sit on the bed. Shana's holding onto my neck and has apparently glued herself to my back. She keeps crying about how much she missed Yuji and things like that.

"Okay, Shana is acting like this because of a love potion she accidentally drank." I'm far too annoyed to beat around the bush, so I get the answer to Louise 2's question out there as fast as I can.

"What! Love potion? Where'd she get that? Those are illegal!" Louise 2 exclaims.

"Montmorency made it and put it in Guiche's wine. Shana must have accidentally drank it while training with Saito," says Louise 1, her eyes fixated solely on Shana.

"Yuuuji! Stop talking to them! Why won't you notice me!" I hear her say.

"Was I this annoying when I had the love potion?" Louise 1 asks.

"Eh? You had the love potion too?" Asks Louise 2.

Louise 1 nods, "Yep. Long story short, it wasn't pleasant."

"Anyway, to answer your question, you were only this annoying the first time. Last time you were just plain scary. I'm sure you remember," I tell Louise.

Louise 1 blushes and looks down, visibly embarrassed as she remembers the things she suggested while under the effects of the love potion.

"Well, what do we do to fix her?" Louise 2 asks.

"We'll talk to Montmorency tomorrow. She made the potion so she should be able to make the antidote. In the mean time, get some sleep everyone, because I know I won't."

The Louises nod, get changed and crawl into the bed. I lie down in my haystack, and Shana never lets go of me. She keeps rubbing her cheek against me and whispering things about how much she loves me.

"Alastor, why aren't you saying anything? Can't you talk Shana out of this?" I ask him.

"If there was anything I thought I could do, I would have done so. Besides, she seems happy."

"Oh, great. And I suppose this is the happiest you've ever seen her?"

"Yes."

'Well, crap. this sucks.' _I am in almost complete agreement. _'Almost?' _I'm sure you already know my feeling on the subject._

Trying my best to ignore Shana and her ramblings, I fall asleep.

*Scene Break*

I woke up and, as expected, Shana was right next to me. What was unexpected was that I was still fully clothed, not that I'm complaining. Trying my best not to wake her up, I got up and tried to walk out of the room. I opened the door and was sent flying by a tackle from behind.

"Shana, I'm going to go get help to fix you! Don't you want to get all better?"

"No! I don't want you to leave!" She says while crying again.

The Louises have woken up and grab Shana. They pin her to the floor by her arms. The Louise holding onto Shana's left arm looks at me.

"Go talk to Montmorency, Do whatever you need, just get her fixed." I nod and exit the room.

"NO! Yuij! Get back here! Don't leave again!" I hear Shana start bawling her eyes out and sigh. I really feel bad having to do this to her, but we can't let her stay like this.

When I get to Montmorency's room I knock on the door.

"Oi, Montmorency? You in there?"

"Go away. I'm busy." I hear her say.

I sigh and kick down the door. Montmorency yelps and I notice that she's just lying in her bed. So much for busy.

"Perfect, you're up. Now get off your ass and start fixing up an antidote to that love potion you put in the wine that Shana drank," I say while giving Montmorency my best death glare.

Her response is to eep and pull the cover over her head. "I-I-I d-didn't make a l-love potion! You must be mistaken!"

"You know her better than I do, there is no way Shana would suddenly start crying and hugging anyone. And I'm sure that you're aware that I'm not Yuji, I'm Saito. That love potion of yours has screwed up her mind. You will make that antidote, or I will force you too," Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I hate it when someone is affected by the love potion. It always manages to inconvenience me, and only me, somehow.

"Eep! Okay! Okay okay okay! You win! I'll start ordering the ingredients!" I think I see a spot on the bed become slightly darker than it was a few minutes ago, but I'm probably imagining it.

I smile and talk in as calming a voice as I can. "There, was that so hard? We'll be back in a few hours. See you then!" I take out the gold coins I got from Henrietta and put them on Montmorency's desk, "If you need some money, its on the desk. Best start ordering those ingredients." I walk out and try to put the door back on its hinges, but settle with leaning it against it's frame.

I open the door to Louise's room and walk in, only for Shana suddenly pop up to my left and tackle me to the floor.

"Yuij! I was so worried! Never leave again!" She starts crying and rubs her cheek against me again.

"Damn, she must have really loved that guy." I say more to myself than anyone.

"Did you talk to Montmorency?" I hear one of the Louises ask.

"Yeah, she need a little persuasion, but she's going to make the antidote. You still have the ring, right?" I ask Louise 1.

She nods and shows me that the Ring of Andvarri is still resting on her finger.

"What? What ring?" Louise 2 looks beyond confused.

"The water spirit's ring, of course. We'll be needing it when we go to Ragdorian Lake to get the tear of the water spirit," I reply bluntly.

"Montmorency is going to be short one tear of the water spirit, which is the most important ingredient in the antidote, so we'll be needing to head out to the lake to have a nice chat with the water spirit," Louise 1 adds. "Its going to be real nice seeing her again, eh Saito?"

I can feel myself blushing. "Shut up, you know that was for the contract."

"Right, of course it was."

"What? You had a contract with the water spirit?" Louise 2 asks. "What'd you do?"

"Like we said, he gave the water spirit her ring back. We get the tear by stopping the people attacking the water spirit, and then Saito formed a contract with the water spirit after giving back her ring," says Louise 1.

"Where'd he get the ring?"

"I found it back in my time. Well, my original time. It stayed with me when I was summoned into Louise 1's time. The ring from Louise 1's timeline was still stolen, so when we managed to retrieve that, I decided to hold onto it, in case of emergencies. Looks like I made the right choice," I tell the still confused Louise 2.

"Right, emergencies. That's why it's sitting been sitting on my finger since the wedding," Louise 1 says in a teasing tone.

I blush a little more. "Um... Right."

Louise 2 looks around a little confused, but she shakes her head, as if to clear the current conversation out of it.

"Well... okay then. As long as we can get Shana back to normal."

"Honestly, I'm kind of scared to do that. She's still going to keep all her memories of this time. She will remember every second of what she's been doing to Saito. I don't think it'll be pretty," Louise 1 throws in.

I wince, I forgot that Shana would keep her memories. _You thought Louise was going to kill you before, that's nothing. I am almost looking forward to seeing what Shana does to you. _'Do you enjoy watching me get hurt?' _Yes. It's hilarious, and I don't feel a thing. _'Damn you.' _Don't act like you don't love it when a loli- _'Shut up or I will make you shut up.'

"Anyway, best get ready. Montmorency should be arriving to tell us the news any minute now." As I say that, the sound of someone knocking on the door is heard.

"Come in," Louise 2 says.

Montmorency slowly opens the door. I don't know if its because she's scared of Shana, or because she's scared of me.

"Um... There was a slight problem. No one I've talked to has the tear of the water spirit. I can't make the antidote."

Louise 2 looks at Louise 1. "Wow, you were right."

"Well, that's fine Montmorency, it's not like we can go talk to the water spirit and ask her for a tear. And it's not like everyone in this room will be incredibly upset at you if you decide to leave Shana like this. Oh wait, that's exactly what can and will happen." I say angrily.

Montmorency notices me trapped on the ground with Shana holding onto me, her face buried in my chest.

"Um... R-right! We can head out to Ragdorian lake and- wait what! You want us to talk to one of the most powerful beings alive? We'll be killed if we say so much as one thing out of line!"

"And I suppose you're fine with eating prison food? Those kinds of potions are illegal," Louise 1 says.

Montmorency notices that there are two Louises, and is visibly confused. "What? How are there two or you?"

Louise 1 is the first to reply with the lie we all brainstormed. "I'm Louise's lost twin sister. Saito over there found me abandoned in the woods a few years back. I had lost my memory, so I stayed with him for a while. Then when we stopped in Tardes to pick up some supplies and ran into Louise and Shana."

It was a lie I was proud of. Even if anyone knew enough about Louise's immediate family to know that she never had a twin sister, the amnesia and fact that she was lost clear that point right up. Noble family's tend not to discuss things pertaining to lost family members, so it made sense that no one had ever heard of Louise having a twin sister. After all, no one knew that Tabitha had a twin, and that came back to bite us all in the ass.

Montmorency still looks confused, but nods. "Okay, then what's your name?"

"Louise."

"Wha-"

"Like I said, I had amnesia. I remember nothing past a few years ago when Saito found me, except for one name, Louise. We took that as my name, and went on from there," Louise 1 said. I was so proud of her, she had learned to just pelt whoever you're talking to with logic, and they'll be too stunned to follow up on you.

"So, how do I talk to you? I can't just say 'Hey Louise, get over here,' and expect the Louise I was referring too to telepathically know I'm referring to her, can I?"

"Louise with Shana as her familiar is Louise 2. I'm Louise 1. Apparently I was the older twin by a few seconds."

Montmorency still looks stunned, but she nods. "Okay, but that's not important. Are you really serious about going to Ragdorian Lake? The water spirit isn't one to be talked to so easily."

"I've had experience negotiating with powerful people before, we should be fine," I tell her.

And with that, its settled. Guiche showed up after that and demanded that we take him along, but he was going to go anyway, even if we said no. We borrowed three horses, Louise and Louise on one, Montmorency and Guiche on another, and me and Shana on the third. I found it amazing how the potion affected people so differently. Shana was acting kind of like Louise back in my original time, but was a lot more clingy. She refused to let me go anywhere without her. _Must be a side effect of her thinking you're Yuji. _'Maybe, but why is that?' _Maybe it's a side effect of the potion? _'So she won't let me go anywhere without her because of the side effect of a side effect?" _Seems like it to me._

_*Scene Break*_

Ragdorian Lake was just as beautiful as it always was. Even if the lake was several feet higher then it should have been. When we got there we got off of out horses and Montmorency cut her finger, placed some blood on her frog familiar, and had it bounce into the lake. Shana was still holding onto me and had her face buried in my back.

_Okay, as sweet as it was at first, now it's just plain creepy. _'It JUST became creepy? It became creepy the second she started rubbing her cheek against me.' _That's what you say but- _'No, it's what I think as well.'

"Remember everyone-"

"We know Montmorency, watch what we say or the water spirit will kill us. You've told us this five times on the way over here," I tell her.

"Well I'm sorry for valuing my life!"

Luckily the water spirit picks that moment to show up so we don't need to keep arguing this point. It shifts its form a few times before settling on Montmorency's shape.

"Oh great water spirit! It is I, Montmorency of the Montmorency family!" I still have a hard time keeping a straight face at that. "Do you remember the contract you made with my family?"

The water spirit's face changes a bit between several expressions before settling on a cross between bored and interested.

"I remember the water that flows through your veins. What do you seek insignificant human?" I have a hard time taking anything the water spirit says seriously after what happened last time.

"We beseech you, will you lend us a part of your body?" Montmorency asks the water spirit.

Her faces shifts between several expressions before settling on an ironic smile. "I refuse."

"Really? Oh well, thanks anyway." Montmorency attempts to walk off but is blocked by the Louises. I step up and the water spirit focuses her gaze on me. Shana's still clinging onto me, but is keeping quiet so the Water Spirit doesn't notice her.

"Oh great water spirit, please help us. Someone important to us is in need, and we need a piece of your body to help her. Haven't you ever had someone you wanted to help?"

_Shana's important to you? _'Not in the same way Louise is. Despite what she does, I wouldn't hesitate to call Shana a friend.' _I would. As much as I like her, she's scary. _'And that's why I'm the one who does all the talking.'

The water spirit's face shifts again before settling on what I can only describe as intrigued. "Very well. If you will help me with my problem I will lend you a piece of my body."

"What? How did he do that?" I hear Guiche and Montmorency say at the same time.

"Thank you. What is your request?" I already know, but it's probably better I ask anyway.

"At night two mages come and attack me. I request that you stop there attacks." The water spirit tells us.

I nod. "Understood. We will call upon you when we have completed your request."

The water spirit nods and melts back into the lake. Montmorency and Louise 2 walk up to me.

"How did you do that?" Montmorency asks.

"Yeah, how'd you manage to get the Water Spirit, one of the most powerful beings in existence, to double back on what she said?" Louise 2 adds.

I shrug. "Like I said, I've talked to some powerful people. Sometimes it's all a matter of asking the question in the right way."

Louise 1 steps up. "We can discuss that later. For now, I think we should come up with a plan to take on these attackers."

*Scene Break*

The Louises, Montmorency, Guiche, Tabitha, Kirche and myself were all sitting around the makeshift camp. Shana had fallen asleep after crawling into my lap, much to the amusement of Kirche and Tabitha. This time around the campfire was used to explain who I was and how there were two Louises. We told them the lie of course, and I'm really surprised how well it's working.

We had decided to try simply talking to the attackers and see why they were trying to kill the water spirit. Turns out that the attackers were really Kirche and Tabitha, much to the shock of everyone except Louise 1 and I, who already knew, and Shana who was too busy trying to get me to love her. They explained that they were here to kill the water spirit because Tabitha had been sent on some kind of mission to stop the rising of the lake's water level by killing the water spirit. We decided to talk to the Water Spirt and ask why the Water Spirit was raising the water level. Right after I got Shana off of me so that I could stand up.

Eventually Shana woke up and we decided to call the water spirit. Montmorency put her blood on her frog and called on the water spirit.

Once she showed up, still taking the form of Montmorency, Louise 1 and I stepped forward to address her.

"Oh great water spirit! We have stopped those that were attacking you," I tell the Water Spirit.

She nodded her head. "Very good. As promised, I shall give you a part of my body." As she said that a small piece of her detached itself from her and floated towards us. Louise 2 caught the tear in a bottle and corked it.

"Thank you Water Spirit, but there is one more thing we have to talk to you about," Louise 1 says.

Just like last time, I swear the Water Spirit raises an eyebrow. I don't care that she's made of water and doesn't have any, she raised an eyebrow.

"And that would be?"

"The two that were sent to attack you did so as you have been raising the water level of the lake. Is there anything we can do for you to lower to water level back to the original size?" Louise 1 asks.

Before the water spirit can even say anything I feel the air go cold. The water spirit points to me and Louise. "You two, step forward." We step onto the shore and get engulfed in a sphere of water. Shana's along for the ride, but that's just because she refused to let go of me. Apparently she actually fell asleep sometime during our conversation with the water spirit. _Amazing. Even when asleep she refuses to let you go. _'Amazing and a little scary.'

"Is this what happened last time Saito?" Louise 1 asks me.

"Yep. We should be heading for the middle of the lake for a nice little private chat."

The air bubble, just like I said, pulls Louise, Shana and I deep under the water in the middle of the lake. The water spirit approaches us once we realize we can breathe in this bubble.

"Why are you in the possession of my Ring of Andvarri?" The water spirit asks, getting right to the point.

I sigh. "I'll tell you, but could you materialize some water chairs or something, please? This is a rather long story."

The water spirit obliges and three chairs made of water form in the bubble. Louise takes one, I take the second (Shana is standing next to me holding onto my neck) and the water spirit sits on the third.

"Before you begin, may I ask who the person holding onto your neck is?"

"This is Shana. She's the friend we want to help. She accidentally took a love potion and her mind became a little messed up. Now she thinks that Saito is this one guy she used to love," Louise 1 tell the Water Spirit.

She nods. "I see. Begin your story."

*Scene Break*

"And that's the story. Did I leave anything out Louise?"

She shakes her head. "I don't think so."

We told the water spirit everything. We told her all about how we were from an alternate timeline and how I was from the future of that alternate timeline. We explained how we took the ring from Myoznitnirn when we fought her that one time. After the story is done, the Water Spirit stares at me and Louise for about a minute each.

"Good, you are telling the truth. I request that you give me the ring back," she says while holding out her hand. Louise takes the ring off of her finger and hands it to the Water Spirit. She puts it on and transforms into her school girl form. She becomes slightly shorter then Louise and her hair transforms from Montmorency's to pig tails that reach to her waist.

"Yay! My rings back! It's back!" The Water Spirit says while bouncing up and down smiling.

I look to see how Louise is reacting to this and start laughing a little bit. She looks absolutely shocked.

"Did she do this last time?" She asks me.

I nod. "Yep. I was as shocked as you are. Still am, actually."

The Water Spirit stops bouncing up and down and smiles at us. "And what's your name Mr. and Mrs. dimension hopper?"

"I'm Saito Hiraga."

"I-I'm Louise Hiraga." I'm momentarily confused, but then I remember that we had the official wedding a few months ago. In our timeline anyway.

_Oh yeah, she did take your name after the wedding. _'Yeah but it's kind of weird not hearing her say her original name.' _I think it's more weird how she doesn't have anything extra attached to it. _'Well in this time she doesn't really have anything, right? She's not a chevalier so that can't be a part of her name, and she can't use any of her Valliere name since she was using my Des Ornières name that I don't have anymore. Ergo, a name as short as mine.'

The Water Spirit tilts her head to the side. "You're related?"

I can already feel myself blushing, and a quick glance at Lousie shows that she's the same way. "Um... Actually no. We're married," she tells the water spirit.

The Water Sprit starts smiling and clapping her hands. "Congratulations! I love marriages! Anyway, hold out you hand Mr. and Mrs. Hiraga!" _That has a nice ring to it. _'Yeah, it never really occurred to me that we are a Mr. and Mrs. couple now.'

Louise and I hold out our hands. The Water Spirit pokes our index fingers and a single drop of blood falls out. She catches both in her left hand.

"Um... What did you just-" Before Louise can finish her question, her lips are covered by the Water Spirit's. Then the Water separates and kisses me for a few seconds.

_For shame. Your married and making out with other people while your wife's right there? Tsk tsk tsk. _'Oh, and I suppose you know a better way to form contracts that are required to be sealed with a kiss.' _Um... _'Go ahead! Enlighten me!' _I got nothing. _'I thought so.'

"Congratulations the two of you! You and your descendants will now have my blessing!" The water spirit tells the two of us.

"What? We formed a contract with you? That's what this was?" Louise asks.

The Water Spirit nods. "Yep! Whenever you're in a pinch, just do what miss Montmorency did and I'll grace you with my presence! Have fun you two lovebirds!"

The water spirit winks and snaps her fingers. Unlike last time where the bubble rocketed towards the shore at speeds that knocked me unconscious, this bubble shoots us at speed that only cause us to go tumbling end over end when we hit the shore. A glance at the lake shows the water level is back to what it normally was. I guess that the Water Spirit fixed it sometime during our conversation. Louise 1 and I get up and everyone rushes us.

"What happened?" Louise 2 says before the others get the chance.

"Tell you on the ride home," Louise 1 says while blushing.

*Scene Break*

We mostly rode in silence for some reason. I guess the group sensed that something happened during our little chat with the water spirit and didn't want to ask. Eventually Louise 2 speaks up.

"What happened? What did the water spirit talk to you about?"

Louise 1 and I look at each other, unsure how to answer. "Um... The water spirit just wanted to know the time?" I offer.

I silently curse myself for not being able to think straight. I blame Louise for bringing up her new name. I just couldn't stop thinking about how far our relationship had come since I first met her. _It only took several near death experiences, you saving her life more times then I can count, and one time warp, but you finally managed to marry Louise. How much do you have to accomplish until the first kid? Another time warp, saving her life about 4 more times and you dying again? Maybe the baby will even be delivered on a beam of light by an angel. _'I'm starting to get really tired of telling you to shut up.' _You know you love me._

Louise 1 gives me a solid slap to the back of the head for being an idiot, and the rest of the group just looks at me like I'm a complete idiot. _Completely justified._

"Really, Saito? You're usually a much better liar then that," Louise 1 points out.

"Sorry, I'm having a hard time thinking straight. My mind is focused on other matters."

Louise 1 realizes what I'm thinking about, at least I think she does, and nods her head. Louise 2 and the rest of the group don't.

"Other matters? Like what?" Kirche asks.

I look at Tabitha who's currently looking at me with great interest. She's trying to be sneaky by pretending to read her book, but I can tell she already knows what's bugging me. Last time she used a wind spell to somehow capture the conversation I had with the Water Spirit, so I had no doubt that she did the same thing now.

I shake my head in an attempt to shake off this conversation. "Nothing important to the group. Anyway, the water spirit did make a contract with me and Louise 1," I tell the group prompting gasps from everyone except Louise 2 and Shana.

"What did you do? Those are almost impossible to form! Even my family doesn't know how we formed our contract with the water spirit!" Montmorency says.

"The water spirit asked not to mention to people unless absolutely necessary," Louise 1 tells the group who all nods their heads like they understand.

_What? How come they believe her when she says that, but they didn't believe you when you tried the same excuse? _'Because that would be too easy.' _Damn you._

"Now that that's settled, let's head back and fix up an antidote. How much longer till we reach the academy?" I ask.

"Another few minutes."

I prepare myself for Shana to suggest something similar to what Louise 1 suggested, but she doesn't. _THANK GOD FOR THAT!_

"What do you know, she's already doing better than you Louise!" I say joyfully.

Louise 1 blushes and looks away, and Louise 2 looks confused. "You know I was under the influence of that potion," Louise 1 says.

"Yeah but you still suggested it."

"What?" Louise 2 asks. "What are you talking about?"

I open my mouth to tell her but Louise 1 puts a hand over it. "Nothing!"

I remove her hand. "Do you really want to know?" I ask the group. They all nod their heads.

Louise 1 glares at me. "Tell them and you die a very painful death."

I gulp. "Um... never mind. Forget I said anything."

Louise 2 gives me a look that I swear says, "I'll interrogate you about it later so be prepared." _That's a pretty specific look. You sure she didn't just telepathically communicate with you? _'I don't think she can do that. I just think that's what the look she gave me conveyed.'

*Scene Break*

"Aaaaand it's done!" Montmorency proudly exclaims.

"Really? Give it to Shana!" Louise 2 says.

After we got back to the academy the Louise and I went to Montmorency's room immediately so we could fix Shana ASAP. Guiche, Tabitha and Kriche went back to their own rooms for the night leaving just the five of us waiting for Montmorency to finish. Once she did she handed me a beaker full of a clear liquid.

"So I just have her drink this? No special conditions or anything?" I ask Montmorency.

She nods. "Yes, though you might want to run away."

"Let me guess, she'll remember everything?"

Montmorency nods.

Not bothering to continue the conversation I offer the beaker to Shana.

"Hey Shana, would you mind drinking this for me?"

A second later I notice that the beaker is already to Shana's lips and is empty. _What just happened? I blinked and missed it._

Once she was done she just stared into space for a few seconds. She turns and looks at me. I see her blush and her eyes go red as she glares at me angrily. I can already feel the aura of death coming off of her.

"In the interest of not dying, I'm going to leave now. Is that okay?" Before even waiting for a response I calmly walk towards the door open it and walk out. Sadly Shana is really fast and catches up to me in about two seconds.

I open my mouth to try and defend myself but never get the chance. Unlike last time, Shana doesn't seem to be willing to hold back and starts beating the crap out of me. _Heh. I was right. Hilarious. _'Damn you so much.'

*Scene Break*

I was currently lying pitifully on a bench in the courtyard. I was worried that Shana's reaction upon being fixed would be bad, but I didn't expect it to be that bad. I was lucky I still had all my limbs intact. Luckily Montmorency is a really good water mage and was able to heal me to where I didn't have any noticeable bruises, and all the cuts had closed up. I was still sore all over my body. Louise 1 sat next to me. She worried for a little bit, but when she saw that I was still alive she calmed down.

Louise 2 and Shana were sitting on the bench across from us. Louise 2 looked like she was trying to ignore a conversation, and Shana looked furious, though if it was at herself for doing that or at me, I don't know.

"Did you really have to do that? It wasn't my fault you know," I tell Shana.

She gives me one of those glares she's really good at. "Did you even try to warn me about that? No. This is your fault for not stopping it from happening," She says angrily.

"You punched me through a wall!" I yell at her as I sit up. "You expect me to be able to do anything after being punched through a foot of stone? Just because you could do that doesn't mean I can!"

"I wouldn't have slammed you through a wall if you were any good at fighting!"

"Oh, well excuse me for not having a god in me to give me all these awesome powers!"

"Urusai, urusai, urusai!"

_SQUEEEEEEEE! She said it again! Saito! Anger her some more! I love it when she says that. _'Have I mentioned how you're really starting to scare me with this Shana worship?' _No, actually. _'You're really starting to scare me with this Shana worship. Stop it. Besides, you nearly deafened me last time you squealed in joy. At the very least keep it down.' _Killjoy._

The back and forth between me and Shana continues for a bit. The Louise's manage to calm us down before it comes to blows, a fact I'm thankful for. Shana just sits and glares at me like everything wrong with the world is my fault.

"Um... so Louise, ever been to Ragdorian Lake?" Louise 2 asks in an attempt to change the subject.

Louise 1 nods. "A few times. Did the princess still meet Wales there?"

Before Louise 2 can respond Kirche and Tabitha drop in. "That was it! That was Wales with Henrietta!"

"I take it you were enjoying the show?" I ask the two of them.

Tabitha nods.

"Well, yes, but that's not important now! I think Wales just kidnapped Henrietta!" Kirche tells us.

"Impossible. We saw him die," Shana tells them. "You must have seen it wrong."

Louise 1 and I exchange a grim look. "No, she's right. We have to hurry," Louise 1 tells the group.

*Scene Break*

"Princess!" Louise 2 called out once we reached Ragdorian Lake.

Henrietta and Wales turn to us and see our little group. They both blink once, a look of complete confusion on their face. "Um... Why are their two Louises?" Henrietta asks us.

Our group just looks at each other, confused. _Shouldn't we focus more on rescuing the princess then why their are two Louises? _'That's just it. We all expected the two of them to just be all smooth and all 'Oh, you'll never win!' We weren't really expecting a nice little conversation to happen.'

Louise 1 shakes her head. "Not important right now! Princess! You need to come with us! He's dangerous!"

I nod. "Yeah! Zombies make terrible lovers!" _... What. _I ignore the awkward looks I'm getting from the rest of the group and continue. "I mean... He died. Doesn't it strike you at all as odd that he somehow managed to come back?"

Tabitha launches an ice spear and it passes right through where Wales' heart would be and implants itself in the tree behind him. We all stare at the hole in Wales' body as it closes right up and he acts like nothing happened. _That never stops being awesome._

"There you go. Wales is clearly not of this earth anymore," I begin. "Now if you could just come towards us and away from the zombie-"

"No," Henrietta tells us. "I know he's not real. I've known that. But-"

"You still have to take this chance to be with the one you love and you're not letting us take it away from you," says Louise 1. "Cue rain."

Then it starts raining and everyone, except me, looks at her, surprised. _Why couldn't you have done that last time? _'I just never thought of it.' _Yet Louise did. Shame on you._

"Y-yes!" Henrietta says, trying to save face. "You can't win! Water users are unbeatable in the rain!"

Louise 1 throws a casual glance at the other Louise. "Check the book."

Louise 2 does and stops on a page. _Wait, she got dispel from the potion last time. How does she have it now? _'Shana took the potion. Remember how the familiar and master have that connection or whatever it is?' _I just figured it was for plot convenience. _'That too.'

Louise 2 begins her chant and I turn to Shana. "Okay, our turn. Protect Louise while she casts her spell."

She nods and we turn to the Wales/Henrietta team in front of us. "Okay, since you won't respond to reason, we have to use force," I tell the two of them.

Shana remains silent but readies her sword and coat. Her hair turns red and starts shimmering. _I keep expecting the rain to put out her hair or something. _'Her hair's not made of fire despite its looks.' _I know, but it's such a convincing effect._

Henrietta just sighs, as if regretting what she has to do and raises her wand. She casts a spell and the giant water tornado appears. _Let me guess. The plan is to charge the tornado? _'Any other ideas?'

"Shana, go after the princess. Keep her restrained, stop her from more casting spells that could severely hurt someone."

"And what are you going to do?" Alastor asks me.

"Severely hurt myself," I tell them as I charge the tornado, sword in hand.

Luckily for me, even as a katana, Derflinger hasn't lost his ability to absorb magic and he starts absorbing it. Unfortunately that means I'm trapped in a tornado that's tearing me to shreds for about the fourth time in my life.

'I'm an idiot! Next time I'm coming up with a better strategy!' _Glad you agree with me for once._

Luckily for me I think Derflinger's gotten a bit better at absorbing the energy, so by the time either Louise finishes her spell I should only be mostly dead as opposed to near dead.

That doesn't stop it from being excruciatingly painful, of course. The thing still cuts me all over my body and I start bleeding. Eventually I hear Louise finish the spell and the tornado disappears. Out of the corner of my eye I see Wales fall down too, the magic gone from his body. _Perfect, now we can faint in peace, _I hear my inner monologue say as I lose consciousness from the blood loss.

*Louise 2 POV*

Well, it was clear to me that Saito is an idiot. Who's stupid enough to charge a water tornado? Louise explained to me that his sword can absorb magic, much to my shock, but that doesn't make it any less stupid. After I finished the spell and stopped the tornado, I ran up to the princess to make sure she was okay.

Shana, who had been holding Henrietta to stop her from casting, and Louise, who had been holding off Wales, checked to make sure Saito was okay. Henrietta was crying and saying how sorry she was for letting this happen. We had her heal Saito and Louise sighed in relief. Shana look relieved too for some reason. Why would that be?

Wales still had a little life in him, and he asked Henrietta to forget about him and move on. After much persuasion, and a pep talk from Louise 1, she tearfully agreed that she should probably move on. We helped the princess get back to the castle, and we headed off back to the academy. I couldn't help but notice that Shana seemed to be unsure whether to distance herself from Saito, or walk right next to him. _How effective was that potion?_


	8. Inn

Author Notes:

I'm disappointed at my lack on interesting things to note. Well... The fact that this chapter exists at all is interesting, I guess. For my last story I didn't write about the inn because I couldn't think of anything I could do that would be different enough from the novels to warrant existing. Simply by virtue of the existence of two Louises and a Shana, I managed to come up with quite a few ideas for various things to do with this chapter. Read, review, leave feedback, and enjoy the story!

**Inn**

It had been maybe a week or two since the Ragdorian Lake incident. Business continued as usual, classes went on, and we all kept up the training. Luckily for me I was getting better. I actually managed to block one of Shana's strikes. Sure the next one hit me so hard I lost consciousness for a few seconds but still, points for me.

One day, after finishing training, we decided to head back to Louise's room. As soon as we entered the academy we were stopped by a guy riding a horse. He dismounted when he saw us.

"The princess requests that you come visit her immediately. All four of you," he says while eyeing the two Louises.

His message delivered, he gets back on his horse and rides off.

"What happened to the owls?" I ask. "They were so much better then some guy on a horse." _Now a girl on a horse- _'Complete that train of thought and I will have to hurt you.'

"Does that really matter? Let's just go talk to the princess about whatever she wants to ask," Shana says quickly, as if trying to avoid a conversation with me.

I don't know what it is but something about Shana scares me. _How is that any different then the past unidentified amount of time it's been since we met her? _'It's different. When we first met her she scared me because I was convinced she was going to kill me, and she could if she wanted to. What scares me know is that it doesn't feel like she wants to kill me anymore.' _That's a bad thing? _'No, but it is scary.'

Ever since the incident at Ragdorian Lake, Shana seemed a lot less angry. During training she normally criticizes me and tells me to stop sucking. "You are terrible at this," or "maybe if you tried using some actual brains and formed a strategy you would actually do good," and my favorite, "Maybe if you weren't swinging around that chunk of metal and used an actual sword you'd stop sucking," were some of the things she said to me during the training before. Now I got things like, "You almost had it, just try again," and "Try harder and you'll get it," or most frighteningly, "You're starting to get better. Good job."

Other than training though, Shana seemed almost a little too normal, almost like she was trying to ignore me. _You don't think she... _'No, impossible. I clearly just did something to anger her and she's ignoring me because of it.' _You always were good at coming up with ways to sidestep the obvious issue. _'I'm sidestepping the issue because it's not possible. Besides, I'm married. Do you really think I'm the type of person to go around and cheat on my wife?' _Considering you did just that the first time around- _'That wasn't an official marriage. It doesn't count if you drug them halfway through. That and I was an idiot.' _You still are._

_*_Scene Break*

We had just arrived at the palace and just walked through the door into the princess' room. The Louises walked in first and Shana and I followed. The princess gives hugs to both the Louises, Shana gets a friendly handshake, and I get a verbal acknowledgement that I exist. Being the odd one out in the time space continuum sucks.

"First, I must thank you. If not for the efforts of you four I would have been taken to Albion where who knows what would have happened," Henrietta tells us.

"Oh, it was no trouble at all!" The Louises reply at the same time which is a little creepy. "Anything to help the princess!"

"It was no trouble," Shana says.

"Glad I could help," I say, but I don't think anyone heard me.

"Second, I must ask, why are there two Louises?"

We instantly form a group huddle so that Henrietta won't hear our discussion.

"How much should we tell her?" Louise 1 asks.

"I think we should just tell her the truth," Louise 2 says. "Wouldn't it be beneficial for the royal family to know the situation?"

"I don't know," Alastor throws in. "Do we really want anyone to know that another dimension exists? They barely handled the knowledge of another world."

"It's not another dimension, just an inconsistency with the time stream," Shana tells us. "It's not as hard to understand."

I nod. "Then it's agreed that we tell the princess?" They all nod.

We break the huddle and turn to a very confused looking Henrietta.

"So who tells her?" I ask the group. As expected, they all point to me.

"Damn it," I say under my breath. "Okay this may get a little complicated so please try and follow."

Henrietta nods. "Is it a long story? I could have some chairs brought in if that'd be beneficial."

The group nods and Henrietta has some guards bring in five chairs which we all sit down on.

"Okay, my name is Saito Hiraga. I am the familiar of the Louise wearing the purple mantle. We are not from this time."

Henrietta gasps. "W-what? Not of this time?"

Louise 1 nods. "We are from an alternate time where I summoned Saito instead of Shana as my familiar."

"And that's not all," I say. "In that timeline, I was from the future."

Instead of acting shocked Henrietta just stares at me. "What?"

"Yep. I was pulled back in time a few years, when purple mantle Louise, also known as Louise 1, somehow summoned me. Basically, I have the pleasure of experiencing all of this for the third time."

I take a pause to give Henrietta some time to pick her jaw off of the floor. She looks at the other Louise.

"What should I call you?"

"I'm Louise 2."

Henrietta nods. "Okay then. Louise 2... are you sure we can trust them? How do you know this isn't a trick by Albion to kidnap you like with..." her voice trails off and it's obvious she's fighting off tears at remember Wales.

Louise 2 nods. "I know we can trust them. In the month or so preceding their arrival I had a feeling."

"Feeling?" Louise 1 and Henrietta ask at the same time. I remain silent. I want to see where this conversation goes.

"There were several points where I felt that someone important was missing. The ball of Frigg and the ride back from Albion were two such examples."

Louise 1 starts blushing and I look away and try to avoid talking about the importance of those events.

"When these two arrived in the town of Tardes, I felt that feeling again. Only this time it was telling me that these were who I was waiting for."

Henrietta puts hand to her chin as if pondering. "Well... if you're so sure, but what caused you to be able to know that?"

"Her void magic," Alastor says before anyone can voice a theory. "If void magic is as powerful as the legends say, who's to say that it can't tell Louise when there's a discrepancy in the time stream?"

At this everyone puts hand to their chin and ponders. It's a theory that makes sense, but there's not really anything we can use to prove it. We all decide to ignore it for now.

"Anyway, there is another matter I wanted to speak to you about," Henrietta tells us. "I need you to go on a mission for me."

The Louises perk up. "Of course! What is it?" They ask at the same time.

"I need you to go in the city and gather information. Disguise yourself as commoners and mingle with them, see what they think about the royal family, what they like and what they want changed," She goes to her desk and pulls out a rather large bag of coins, "Here is some money. It should be more then enough to carry you through the mission."

Louise 2 takes the bag from the princess and she and Louise 1 take a bow.

"We won't fail you princess!"

*Scene Break*

"You know, I think you might have just set the record for quickest loss of money," I tell Louise 2.

"I almost had it. If only I had a few more coins," she mutters to herself.

Like last time, and the time before, Louise 2 fell victim to gambling bug. Louise 1 and I tried to stop her, but there's no stopping a determined Louise. If she thinks something should be done, it will get done.

"Do we have a plan B?" Alastor asks.

Louise 1 nods. "Yes, There's an inn around here that should be hiring. We should apply for jobs and see if we can make some money. While we're there we can pick up on rumors for the Princess. Win-win."

_And while we're there we can get all sorts of character development! _'You keep saying things like that. Why do you keep dropping terms like we're in some kind of manga or anime?' _You'll find out when you're older._

"That worked last time?" Shana asks.

Before I can say anything, as if on cue, A very frightening muscular french man wearing what amounts to a little more coverage then a two piece bikini runs up to the group.

He says things about how we should come with him to work at his inn, but I have a hard time responding. My mind is currently numb with fright by the possibility that this man is going to violate me. _You know him better than that! _"That... doesn't make me feel any better.'

We agreed and followed him to the Charming Fairies Inn. We introduced ourselves to Jessica and the rest of the girls working there. Shana and I were put to work in the kitchen washing dishes, and the Louises were waitresses. Waitresses wearing those accused skimpy outfits that looked way better than they should. Shana was going to be a waitress as well, but refused and nearly burned down the entire damn place after they told her she'd have to wear that outfit. It took the combined force of every employee at the inn to calm her down.

"How dare they even suggest wearing that," I hear Shana mumble to herself as we wash the dishes.

"Don't worry, nothing's going to happen," I tell her, my eyes focused on the Louises to make sure that the customers don't try anything strange.

"Still, I don't like the customers here. I can almost sense the evil intentions coming off of them," Shana says.

"Well look on the bright side, if anything goes wrong they have to put up with not one, but two of the most powerful mages alive. I doubt anyone who even tries to do anything to either one of them is going to live very long," _And if the Louise's don't do anything than you will. _'Damn right.'

Eventually hours are up and our little group retires to the room we got for the night. Unfortunately the room only has one very dirty bed, and I'm pretty sure the bats hiding on the ceiling multiply when we aren't looking. _Well, at least there's that white haired girl standing right outside the window. _'Who?' _Oh, wait, never mind. She disappeared. _'You're seeing things. Which worries me because it means I'm seeing things, and I don't like the fact that I'm becoming mentally unstable.' _You have a voice in your head, you've been mentally unstable since you formed the familiar contract._

"Okay, so how are we handling sleeping arrangements?" I ask the group. "I doubt the old arrangement would work. That bed looks like it could hardly handle one person, let alone two."

"Well how about we ask for a few extra pillows and beddings and the familiars sleep on the floor. Seem fair?" Alastor asks.

Shana blushes, and the Louises looks surprised at the suggestion.

"Wait, wait, wait," I begin. "Are you suggesting that Shana and I-"

"Sleep together on the floor? Yes. What's the problem? Your masters should have priority over you, so shouldn't they get the bed? And you said it yourself, the bed could probably just barely handle two people, there's no way anyone besides the Louises could be on it at the same time."

_Hey asshole pendant! He's married! He can't just go sleeping with other women just because of the circumstances! _'While I appreciate the support, did you really have to call him an asshole?'

"I'm getting the extra beddings," Shana says before storming out of the room.

The Louises and I exchange glances of confusion before deciding to just turn in for the night.

*Shana POV*

"Alastor what were you thinking!"

_How could Alastor suggest I sleep with him! Sure it was either that or him sleeping with either one of the Louises, but that didn't make me appreciate the idea any more. At least if he were sleeping with one of the Louises then he'd be sleeping with someone he loves and is married to. The mere thought of me and him having to sleep together just seems wrong. How could I possibly be so close to someone who I barely know?_ Despite my thoughts there was still one question. Why did I like the idea?

"You know why," is his annoyingly unspecific answer.

"If I knew why I wouldn't be asking you!" I reply angrily.

"Wrong. You know exactly why, you just don't want to admit it," Alastor says in an almost teasing manner.

"What? There's nothing to admit!"

Alastor chuckles. "Denial. I'm sure you'll realize it soon enough. I don't see what the problem is. You like him, right?"

I ponder for a moment. "Well, I guess I don't hate him-"

"There's your problem."

"What? What problem? I just said I don't hate him, so what's the problem?" I'm really starting to get frustrated by this point. Why couldn't Alastor just tell me what his reasons were?

"You never were good at things involving love," Alastor adds in a tone that sounds more like he's saying it to himself.

"What? What does love have to do with anything?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out."

I sigh in frustration. I hate it when Alastor gives half-answers. All he's told me is that he knows something about me and Yu- Saito. His name is Saito. He's not Yuji. Yuji's dead.

Not even bothering to get the extra bedding I head back to the room and find that everyone's already asleep. Saito's asleep on the floor, so I lie down next to him. I notice that it's a little cold out when I shiver a little. _I should have gotten those blankets. _I scoot a little closer to Saito for warmth.

*Scene Break*

*Saito POV*

_It was warmer than I thought it would be without blankets. _'Yeah, weird.'

I turn around and see that Shana is dangerously close to me. Dangerously close being "Holy crap we are practically snuggling together" distances. _0_0 That explains the heat. _'How'd you do that?' _;) It came to me in a dream. _'It's creepy. Stop it.' _:( _'Damn it man!'

I stand up, stretch out and wake everyone up. Shana and I head down to get started on the kitchen work and give the Louises some time to change into their work outfits. Business continued as usual. Louise 1 & 2 picked up various opinions from the drunk customers and sent them back to the princess, and Shana kept ignoring me. _Good! _'I don't know. You don't just ignore someone without a good reason.' _Well, that is right but what could her reason be? I don't think you've done anything to anger her._

Ignoring the situation I kept a focus on the Louises. If something went wrong I wanted to be there to help out, especially with all these suspicious looking people around. I didn't like the way most of the customers kept looking at the two of them. _Really? Because I'm pretty sure you've looked at her like that at least once. _'Shut up.'

The Louises got caught up in the tip race. Whoever got the most tips won the right to use that charming fairy bustier for a day. The bustier had some kind of attract magic cast on it, so on that day whoever wore it would be able to get as many tips as they wanted. The Louises were working as a team, so their tips were pooled together. They still couldn't get past last place. Louise 2 kept yelling at whoever tried to touch Louise 1 in anyway, and Louise 1 kept yelling at whoever tried to touch Louise 2. It was really amazing to see how well the two of them were getting along. _Not really. They're the same person, wouldn't you get along with yourself if you ever met him? _'Let's hope that never happens. Having to deal with two Louises is more than enough, I don't need to deal with another me on top of that.'

The days wore on. More opinions, more dishes, and more wishing that we could just go home already. One day that tax collector from before decided to drop in. All the girls of the inn ran in terror except for the Louises, who were approaching him fearlessly.

_Um... Louise knows who that is right? _'I hope so, but you know how competitive she can get. She really wants to win that tip race.'

I gave Shana a nudge and indicated that she should keep an eye on the Louises. We both kept doing the dishes, but our eyes never left either of the Louises. I try to hear what they're saying, but it's really hard to keep an eye on someone, listen in, and do the dishes all at the same time. Eventually the Lousies seem to snap. Louise 1 takes a step forward and slaps the tax collector across the face. His support group he brought with him forms a sort of defensive line in front of the collector. Some pull out wands and some pull out swords and point them at the two Louises.

"Shana, you got any other swords in that coat of yours?" I ask urgently.

She hesitates for a second but nods. She puts on her coat, pulls out her katana, and hands me a piece of paper that resembles a bookmark. _Um... What are we supposed to-oh shit!_

My inner monologue was cut short by the bookmark expanding into a giant sword. I don't know what comes to your mind when I say giant sword, but the sword I was holding was easily bigger then that. It was easily as tall as me and about as wide too. I was expecting it to drop like a stone, but I could easily hold it even with one hand. _Have I mentioned how much I love your Gandalfar powers? _'Not as much as you should.' _I love your Gandalfar powers._

"The sword's name is Blutsagur. Remember it," Alastor tells me.

Shana and I jump over counter that separates the kitchen from the main restaurant and jump right in front of Louise and Louise.

"Saito! You remembered to bring a sword this time!" Louise 1 says.

"Ha ha, very funny," I tell her before turning facing down the group in front of us, "Okay, here's the short version. You not going to touch either of these two, got it?"

The response of one of them is to try an overhead swipe to hit me. I raise Blutsagur and the sword connects with mine. The blades stay in contact, a nice stalemate having formed. Then something weird happens, as it tends too in this time. I felt a sort of surge of power and Blutsagur started glowing. The guy holding the sword in contact with mine had about a second to look shocked before he goes flying backwards, colliding with the tax collector and sending them both flying into a wall.

Everyone has either a look of shock or confusion on their face, and the worst offender is Shana who looks like she's going to need a lot of help picking her jaw up of the floor. I lower the giant sword I've been holding and turn to the Louises.

"Um... anyway, could you show them the letter?"

Louise 2 fumbles with her pocket until she pulls out a letter with the royal seal on it.

"W-we are members of her majesty's court, if you wish to impede us, then you impede the queen's court," she says, her voice shaking, and I don't blame her.

The guys get up and nearly knock each other down trying to rush out the door. Ignoring that for a minute I look at Shana.

"Um... was that whole light show something that was supposed to happen?"

She still looks very shocked at what just happened. Her focus on my chest for a second before shaking her head. "No, that's not something that should have happened."

"Well, it did. Any idea what caused it?" Louise 1 says.

"I'm sure we'll find out when we need too," I tell her. "In the mean time, can I keep the sword?"

Shana nods. I will the sword to become a bookmark again and I stick it in my pocket. I loved the feeling of turning into a walking armory. It made me feel way more powerful than I really am.

Jessica, Scarron's daughter (It still baffled me that that man, using the term loosely, managed to actually find someone to mate with who was capable of producing offspring) then came up to us.

"Thanks for getting rid of that guy. He was a real pain. And I think we all know who won the tip race, right girls?" Jessica says while gesturing to a giant pile of bags where the tax collector and his goons has hit the wall. _Whaaaat? How did they manage to drop so much money? _'They probably left it hoping that we wouldn't kill or arrest them.' _They bribe us and then run away? Sad._

*Scene Break*

It had been a day since we scared off the tax collector and Louise 1 & 2 won the tip race. They were given the outfit with the attract magic on it, but they said they weren't feeling well so they decided to get some rest in their room. Shana kept acting weird, though for once I had a good idea why. Why did the sword she gave me glow? And how did it toss a guy 20 feet backwards, even though it only touched his sword? _Does it matter? _'I don't know. Shana didn't seem too happy with the fact that it happened.' _Well neither did that guy you sent flying into a wall, I just don't see a problem. _'That guy and all of us had a right to be shocked, none of us knew that it could do that. Shana did though. If it's her sword, then why was she so surprised when it lit up? I doubt she just forgot that it can do that.'

I decided my work for the day was done and went back to the room. Shana and the Louises had already gone up there a while ago, something about being tired. _If you're lucky maybe they convinced Shana to wear that bustier. _'Why would that make me lucky? I'm sure she'd use the magic to give herself an excuse to hit me some more.' _Just a thought._

Well it wasn't Shana in the bustier, but Louise 1 was. Hell, it looked like they were doing some kind of modeling show in the room, with Shana and Louise 2 sitting on the bed like a judge sits at a table. Louise 1 had her hair done up in a ponytail along with the whole outfit. It was horrible, it can't be legal to be that adorable. Louise 1 turns to me when I come in.

"Saito! Great timing! How do I look?" She says while striking a pose that would cause most men to do horrible things to her. It just renders me speechless.

"Good," I finally manage to choke out. "Way too good."

She pouts a little. "That's it?"

"Maybe he requires a little more provoking," Louise 2 suggests with a knowing smile.

_I shudder to think what that could mean. _'Judging by the look on her face, we're not going to have to wait that much longer.'

Louise 1 had a look on her face that seemed to say, "Brilliant! I love that idea!"

"Provoking, eh? I think I know how to do that," and then she grabs the edges of the skirt and slowly starts to lift in the most teasing manner anyone could possibly manage.

Before anything even gets put on display, I collapse from sensory overload and my face hits the floor. I can't tell if the blood from my nose is the scene that almost happened in front of me or the impact, but either way, it hurts like hell. I hear all three of the girls present start laughing.

"Damn all of you," I manage to croak out. _Look on the bright side, you managed to get your wife to wear that clothing right? Most men have to beg to get their wives to dress up for them! _My mind picks that moment to pass out.


	9. Home

Author Notes:

Honestly I'm very disappointed with how this chapter came out. Since I can't get any type of confession out of any character, I can't do the boat scene, and that's terrible. Still, there are some things I like about the chapter, but I just think I could have done a much better job then I did.

SPOILERS: Despite anything said in this chapter, this is not, nor will it ever be, a SaitoxShana story, so I'm just going to get that out there right now. It was just kind of a natural progression, it wasn't intentional at first. At no point in this story will I actively pair together anyone with anyone. Read, review, leave feedback, and enjoy the story!

**Home**

We were currently on our way to visit Louise's home estate. Louise 1 & 2 were in one carriage with their sister, Eleonore, and I was sitting across from Saito in another carriage. After giving the princess all the information we had gathered during our time at the inn, we went back to the academy. Louise 1 had taken to wearing her hair in a ponytail, so it had become easier to tell the two of them apart. Eleonore, Louise's sister, had just arrived to being her back home. Louise 2 wanted to go help participate in the war, but she first had to get her parents permission. Since Louise 1 wasn't from this time, she didn't need permission, but she thought it would be best if she and Saito went with the other Louise and I back to the estate.

Eleonore was surprised at the sight of two Louises, as everyone here seems to be. Since Louise's family would know that she never had a twin sister, we couldn't use the story we had told everyone. Saito came up with the idea that Louise had been trying out a projection spell and failed, making a copy of her. He told Eleonore that he was the familiar that the copy Louise had summoned. His ability to come up with a convincing lie with no time to prepare impressed me to be honest, not that I would ever tell him that.

"So what can we expect from this visit?" I asked Saito.

He pauses for a moment, "In all honesty I'm not sure. The first time around, I confessed to Louise here, it didn't go well. Last time Louise confessed to me, it didn't go well. I highly doubt that Louise 2 loves me, so that's out, and you're obviously out of the running to fill that role. All I know is that this visit probably won't end well."

"Why's that?" Alastor asks him.

"Because the supreme overlord of the universe apparently hates our group. No matter what happens, events always managed to inconvenience me or Louise, and even then I usually got the shorter end of the stick."

"How so?" I ask him. "You seem fine to me."

He ponders for a moment. "Well, the love potion is one, and possibly the biggest, example," he says.

I start blushing and look at the window so he doesn't notice.

"This was about the fifth time I've been in an event with a love potion," Saito begins, "and it always seems to end with me in great pain. Wait, no, the third time was only embarrassing for everyone involved."

"Right, you mentioned that Louise did something on the way back from Ragdorian Lake, what was that?" Alastor asks.

I notice that he's now blushing. He looks around to make sure there's no one that could possibly overhear us. Then he motions for me to come closer. I lean in a little and he puts his mouth near my ear. I know it's only to whisper whatever it was that Louise did, but I still can't control my blushing. Why is that? He's only a short distance from me, nothing's happening. Luckily for me, after he tells me what Louise suggested I had the perfect excuse to blush.

"Wh-wh-what?" Alastor says, clearly flustered. "She suggested-"

"Don't say it again!" I beg Alastor. "Are you sure that's what she said? You didn't just hear it wrong?"

Saito shakes his head. "Sadly no, and I had about five witnesses to prove it."

Luckily the conversation is stopped before it can continue by the carriage stopping and the door opening. A guy who kind of looks like a butler steps into view.

"Please tell me we've arrived," Saito says, clearly not wanting to have to continue this talk.

The butler nods. "Yes, welcome to the Valliere estate."

*Scene Break*

Louise 1, Louise 2, Saito and myself were sitting at a dinner table with Louise's Sister and Mother. There was silence. Nobody seemed to know what to say. Eventually someone who looks like Louise walked in the door and her face lit up when she saw Louise.

"Louise!"

"Cattleya!" Both Louise 1 & 2 got out of their seats and ran up to her and gave her a big hug. Unlike the others, Cattleya didn't seem bother by the sight of two Louises at all. In fact, she almost seemed happy that there were two of them.

The three of them had their happy reunion, but Eleonore apparently wasn't one who liked small talk.

"Enough! Mother, tell Louise how stupid she is for wanting to go fight in the war!"

"How am I stupid for wanting to help the royal family?" Louise 2 asks.

"Yeah!" Louise 1 adds angrily. "If we feel that the best thing to do is to help the royal family, then we should be allowed to do whatever we think would help the royal family!"

"And that involves going out and getting yourself killed in the war?" Eleonore spits out at them.

Louise 1 and Saito both flinch and look away. _Hmm... What's with that reaction?_

"Enough!" Says Louise's mother. "We will discuss this tomorrow, when your father arrives." Apparently she holds dominance of the house because everyone quiets down.

We continue eating dinner in silence. Eventually our group get up and head to their room. Louise 1 & 2 were sharing a room with Cattleya, and I was sharing a room with Saito.

"Okay, I'll get the floor, you can have the bed, all right?" He says to me.

"You sure? I'm fine with the floor," I tell him.

"No, please, take the bed. It doesn't really matter to me."

"Oh, in that case am I going to have to make you two sleep together again?" Alastor asks.

We both start blushing. "W-what? Why are you so adamant that Shana and I sleep together?" Saito begins. "I am sleeping on this floor, and there is nothing you can do to stop me." Then he lies down and falls asleep right where he was standing. I undress and crawl into the bed. I pull the covers over my head so I can talk to Alastor hopefully without anyone hearing.

"Alastor, he's right. Why are you trying to get me and him so close?" I whisper.

"You still haven't figured it out by now?" Alastor asks.

"Again, if I knew I wouldn't be asking!"

He chuckles. "Would you like me to spell it out for you? I doubt you'd like the answer."

"Yes! Just tell me already!"

He pauses. "I can see that you love Saito."

I blush and try to suppress a gasp of surprise. "W-what! No I don't! How could I?"

"Let's assume for a minute that you do, and go back a bit. You had to kill the one you love, and then you're pulled into another world where someone who's exactly like your dead loved one appears right before you. Honestly I find it pretty hard to see how you can't like him," Alastor says in about as blunt a way as possible.

I'm struck speechless. I don't care that Alastor brought up the best point he could have in an argument like this, I don't love Saito.

"I don't. I don't love him," I mutter to myself.

"Yes, of course you don't." Alastor says. "But that is why I'm at least trying to get you two to be on good terms. He may not be Yuji, but he's the closest you'll ever get anymore. Haven't you noticed how much happier you've been since coming here and meeting everyone?"

I keep silent. It is true, I have been feeling a lot better since I arrived here, but the same thing happened when I met Yuji, and it only led to sadness. I think about what Alastor said for a bit before going to sleep.

*Saito POV*

'I heard nothing, I heard nothing, I heard nothing, I heard nothing.' I repeat this to myself almost as a mantra. Maybe if I deny it strongly enough then reality will bend itself to my will and Shana and Alastor will never have had that conversant right now.

_So much for being out of the running. Wait, why are you eavesdropping? That's not exactly a paragon thing to do. _'It's not eavesdropping if they start off screaming and then forget to lower their voices back to whispers.' _Putting morals and my own personal feelings on the matter aside for a minute, you're screwed. If Shana really does love you, there are no happy endings. _'I know. This isn't going to end well.' _Wait! I thought of a solution! _'No, threesomes are not a valid answer to anything.' _... Damn it._

I still wasn't going to believe it. Shana was right, there is no way she could love me. Nope, not at all. A feeling similar to paranoia creeps over me and I curl myself into as tight a ball as I can and fall asleep.

*Scene Break*

*Shana POV*

I woke up when I heard a knock on the door. I noticed that I must have overslept, considering the sun was already coming directly through the windows. I got up, got dressed and kicked Saito awake. We both got up and answered the door to find Cattleya there.

"Oh, um... Hi," Saito says.

"Hello," Cattleya says. "I take it that you two are the familiars of my little sisters?"

We both nod. "You don't seem to be all that shocked at the sight of two Louises. Why is that?" Saito asks.

Cattleya laughs a little. "The fact that anything in this world is surprising, is surprising. In this world we use magic and people still believe some things are impossible?"

Well, that is a solid point, if you can use magic you really shouldn't be doubting what is and isn't possible.

"Excuse my rudeness, but may I ask why you're here?" I ask her. People don't make a habit of walking up to me just to say hello.

"Father came back. He will not allow either one to go to the battlefield and requests that she find a husband to calm her heart," Cattleya tells us.

I quick glance shows that Saito does not look happy with that statement. I'm not happy with it either, if Louise doesn't want to find a husband, she shouldn't have to, even if her father says so.

Cattleya smiles again. "Ah, neither of you are very happy with that, are you? If you want to find them, they'll probably be hiding in the boat on the lake. Louise often went there to cry when she was little. I've prepared a carriage at the front gate so you can all leave."

We both nod. "Thank you Cattleya."

*Scene Break*

When we reached the lake we saw a boat next to the pier. In the boat was a blanket that seemed to covering something. I tore the blanket off and we saw Louise 1 & 2 lying down next to each other.

"Louise, time to go," Saito says.

"No. They're all treating us like little girls. They don't take us seriously," Louise 1 says.

"Louise, we take you seriously. We already know that you've done great things," I tell them.

"No. You've done great things. I've just sat and watched," Louise 2 says.

"Wrong," says Saito. "Did Shana singlehandedly take out the Albion fleet when it invaded Tardes? Did Shana stop Wales from kidnapping the princess by dispelling the magic keeping his corpse alive? Did Shana just drop by here and say, 'Oh, I think I'll stick around with this girl and save the day?' You have your own accomplishments, and Shana wouldn't have hers if you didn't summon her. And Louise 1, you have no excuse for being like this."

The Louises ponder this for a while before sitting up.

"Right. Let's go, we've got to help the princess," they say in unison.

Saito and I both offer a hand to help them out of the boat. They get out and step onto the pier with us.

"Okay, if we hurry we can leave without them noticing us," Saito says before turning to me. "How fast can you travel?"

"I can move pretty fast when I need to," I tell him.

"Good, grab a Louise and let's head for the front gate," He says while picking up Louise 2 and grabbing his katana. The runes on his hand start glowing.

I understand what he's saying and I pick up Louise 1. We both start moving as fast as we can. When we reach the drawbridge we notice that it's drawn up, and we can't cross. My plan was to put Louise down, fly up and slash the chain keeping the bridge up, but before I could I do that, the chain turned into dirt and fell apart.

"I have yet to find out who's doing that," I hear Saito remark as we cross the bridge.

We notice the carriage right next to the gate, just as Cattleya said. Saito and I put the Louises in the back, while he took the reins and I sat next to him. He got the horses hooked up to the carriage to start running and we were on our way back to the academy.

Saito sighed. "Whew. Dodged a bullet on that one."

"What do you mean?" I ask him.

"Like I said, last time and the time before, things didn't exactly go well."

"Could you be a little more specific?" Alastor asks.

I see Saito blush and he looks away. "I'd prefer not to. Long story short, Louise's mom and dad weren't very happy with me at the end of the day. I'm sure they'll still be rather upset at us leaving without permission to go fight in the war, but it's a necessary action."

I hesitate on my next question, but I ask it anyway. "Saito, when Eleonore mentioned dying in the war, both you and Louise reacted strangely. Why is that?"

Just like when Eleonore mentioned that, Saito flinched and looked away. He stays silent for what I believe to be about a minute. "I haven't had good experiences with wars." And that's all he says before looking straight ahead and trying to avoid any attempt at conversation.

I don't know why, but I feel an urge to comfort him. Before I notice it my arm is reaching out to give him a reassuring pat on the back. I stop myself before it makes contact. _Why? _Is my simple question to myself. I think about what Alastor said last night.

"_I can see that you love Saito."_

That's what he accused me of, and I denied it furiously. I thought about my reaction. Wasn't that a similar feeling I once had towards Yuji? The more I thought about how I felt, the more I recognized it. I was falling in love with Saito.

*On the carriage*

A white haired girl was sitting on the roof of the carriage, her legs dangling off the back end. Though she was in plain sight, no one seemed to notice her. She silently laughed to herself.

"This is getting interesting," she says. "Though I really shouldn't be surprised. Like Alastor said, they pretty much are the same person. And yet I can't help but wonder, how will Louise react when she finds out, and how will this affect future events?" This girl says, pretending not to already know the answer.

She continues to think to herself as the carriage leaves Valliere territory and heads back to the academy.


	10. Death

**Death**

_I don't know about you, but I'm still too excited about Shana loving you to worry about the battle at Saxe-Gotha. _'I'd use the word terrified to describe how I'm feeling, though to be honest I've kind of gotten used to dying, so the battle isn't really scaring me that much anyway. It's mostly Shana that's scaring me.'

I know my first priority should be the battle at Saxe-Gotha and how to handle that considering the extra two people present, but my mind was on other, far more frightening matters. If what I overheard Alastor and Shana talking about back at Louise's home was true, then apparently I had managed to win Shana's affections. This was not a situation I wanted to be in. I didn't hate Shana, I'd even say I like her. I just didn't like her in that kind of way. _Why is it that whenever someone gets married they become at least three times as attractive to members of the opposite sex?_

Still, I had to get this train of thought out of my head. I needed a way to get the Louises and Shana to safety when I went to go hold off the invading army. _Good luck with that. Louise 1 is already wise to your plans and will probably really hurt you if you do anything to Louise 2. Hell, I doubt a sleeping potion would even work on Shana for long._

I'd worry about it later. For now, all I need to do is keep doing the missions we were assigned and push through.

Weeks passed, and for the most part things weren't spectacular. Missions went on, and we stayed in Albion during the whole campaign. I wasn't feeling quite as depressed as last time, dying twice and having someone who could easily kill you fall in love with you kind of puts a damper on the mood. Still, apparently I was still depressed enough to warrant an investigation from Louise 2.

"Saito, what's wrong?" She asked me one day, out of nowhere. Louise 1 and Shana were out meeting with the generals, so we were the only ones in the room our group had rented.

"Oh, nothing," I say, convincing nobody.

She glares at me. "Seriously? It's obvious that something is keeping you down. If it's something I can help with, I'd like to."

"Um... I'm having a bit of a hard time sleeping," I tell her. _What? No you aren- OH! I get it! When did you become a mastermind?_

"Really?" Louise 2 asks me.

I nod. "Yeah, I haven't been getting a lot of sleep so I just haven't been feeling myself. If you don't mind, could you maybe get me some sleeping potion? Something I can drink with wine to fall asleep quicker?"

She nods. "I should be able to get a bottle."

"Thanks." My plan is set in motion. Granted this will only assure the safety of two or our group, but I could work on the third later.

*Scene Break*

It had been about three days since I asked Louise 2 to get me a bottle of sleeping potion. True to her word, she got me some he next day. Now I'd just have to drink some wine every night before bed to make it look like I was actually using the potion. Since we had some free time, Shana and I went to the local bar. Shana didn't want a drink, but she didn't have anything better to do so she followed me. _I hope that's her reason._

At the bar I order a couple of drinks and scanned the crowd for a familiar face or two to help lift my spirits.

"Saito? Shana?" Shana and I turn our heads and see Guiche.

"Guiche! What are you doing here?" I say.

"He's fighting in the war. You can tell from the medal on his chest," Shana says.

"I know that, I was asking to be polite."

Guiche looks like he doesn't quite know what to do with the conversation. "Well, Siesta should around here too."

As if on cue Siesta popped out her head and ran up to us. _I swear, she can't show up without some kind of entrance._

"Shana! Saito!" She cries while pulling the two of us into a big hug. "It's so great to see you here!"

The conversation continues for a bit. I asked why Scarron and Jessica weren't here, and Siesta told us that they needed to stay at the tent bar they had set up.

"Siesta can I ask you for a favor?" I ask her.

"And what might that be?" She asks.

"Well, lately I've been having some trouble sleeping. Would you mind getting me a bottle of sleeping potion that I can drink with wine?"

She reached into her pocket and handed me a bottle that looked exactly like the one Louise 2 gave me a few days ago. I take it, stunned.

"Um... While I'm thankful, why do you have it with you?"

She blushes a little and looks away. "Um... No reason! Just something I have with me just in case!"

I eye her for a second, trying to extract the truth from her by sheer force of will, but no such luck. I pocket the potion and thank her. Eventually, me and Shana decide to head back to the room. When Shana's not looking I pull the potion out of my pocket and quietly empty it onto the ground. I only needed one full bottle for my plan to work.

When we got back to the inn I silently began praying. 'Please no cat suit, please no cat suit, please no cat suit. THANK GOD!' Neither Louise was dressed up in a cat suit or anything else that could elicit a similar reaction.

"Congrats Louise! You managed to save your dignity this time!" I say, and Louise 1 blushes.

"Th-that was the stupid sword's idea and you know it."

"And yet you still agreed to it."

Having gotten accustomed to the two of us referencing events that they will never know, Shana and Louise 2 didn't even bother asking. We noticed it was late out so I had my decoy wine and lied down on the floor next to the bed where the other three girls were sleeping.

*Scene Break*

Nothing makes your day better like a good, solid mass panic. Since it was the advent festival a truce was called and everyone got what amounted to a day off. The Louises, Shana and I decided to spend the day having fun at the festival. Of course it didn't last long. The sun was starting to set when suddenly people who drank water from the wells went berserk. To escape the carnage our group was curently taking shelter in a small abandoned church.

"Wh-what's going on?" Louise 2 asks, the fear making her voice shake.

"Mind control," Louise 1 tells her.

Before she can ask for more details, an owl flies in through the open window and hands Louise 2 a letter. _How the hell did that bird find us? _'The same way it always found us last time.' _Predator intuition?_'Dark magic.'

Louise 2 opens the letter and reads it. As her eyes dart back and forth across the page, her face falls more and more. Shana snatches the letter from Louise 2's hand to try and see what she's making a big deal about. Then she remembers that she can't read this world's writing. I calmly step up and grab the letter and read it. I almost kind of wish I hadn't.

"What's it say?" Shana asks.

"They're invading, aren't they Saito?" Louise 1 says.

I nod grimly. "Yes, Albion is sending an army towards the city. The army's forces number about 700,000. They want Louise, either one, to go there and intercept them. They want her to use her magic to hold them off and give out army time to retreat. Surrender or retreat is not an option for Louise." My inner monologue lets out a low whistle. _I know I should be more frightened, but I'm kind of impressed. How'd they manage to fit so many people on this floating piece of rock?_

Once I say that both Louise 1 and Shana's face pale. "W-wasn't only 70,000?" Louise 1 asks.

"They probably heard how powerful Shana is from somewhere, so they sent more forces thinking she'd be there to stop them."

There's silence from all of us. Shana's the first one to break it. "Louise, are you going to do it?"

Louise 2 pauses for a minute before nodding. "I have to. If I don't then all our friends will die and Tristain's army will be slaughtered."

"I'm going to! I'm not going to let you die by yourself!" Louise 1 adds. I should probably tell her something to try and stop her, but I don't. I already know these are arguments I can't win.

"Then let's have one last drink together," I tell the group. Louise 2 looks shocked at such a suggestion, Shana look confused, and Louise 1 eyes me cautiously.

"No Louise, I am not drugging you with the potion like last time," as I say this I reach into my left pocket and pull out the empty bottle of sleeping potion. I take off the lid and turn it upside down to show that is indeed empty. Louise 1 calms down, but Shana and Louise 2 just seemed more confused.

I head over to the altar and find four glasses and a bottle of wine. I fill them all up with wine. I reach into my right pocket and pull out the bottle of sleeping potion Louise 2 gave me, and I pour the contents into one of the glasses. _Let's hope your plan works. _'They usually do.' _They're usually no more complicated then go here, slash this._

I grab two glasses and hand them Louise 1 and Shana. I grab the last two glasses and hand the drugged one to Louise 2. We all clink our glasses together and down the wine in seconds.

"Since this might be the last time we see each other as a group, anyone have anything to say?" I ask.

Everyone thinks for a minute. Shana blushes and looks down, Louise 1 is just staring at the floor, and Louise 2 is staring at her glass.

"No one? Well I do." Before I can continue that sentence, Louise 2 collapses to the floor. "I drugged her."

Louise 1 grabs Louise 2 and checks to make sure nothings broken or injured, and Shana stares at me, a look of confusion and shock on her face.

"S-saito. Why?" Louise 1 and Shana ask at the same time.

"Simple. Louise, Shana, take Louise 2 and get to the ships. Retreat with the troops. I'm off to stop the army," I tell them.

Louise 1 is the first to respond. She grabs me by my shirt and buries her face in my chest.

"I won't let you do this! I don't want to lose you again!" I don't even have to see her face to know that she's crying.

I wrap my arms around her and give her a pat on the head. "It's okay Louise, it's not forever. We'll see each other again."

"You don't know that! What if something goes wrong?"

"It's either this, or let you go to die. I'm not letting you go out to die Louise."

She looks at me for a moment with tears in her eyes. Then she kisses me. She separates after a few seconds.

"Come back alive. Please," she says, almost begging.

I nod. "I will Louise." Louise picks up Louise 2 and walks out of the church.

"Am I really this heavy?" I hear Louise remark before exiting the church.

I turn to Shana. "You going with them or coming with me?"

I notice she's blushing and looking away for some reason. _You're really going to pretend to not know? _'If I ignore the problem long enough then reality will twist itself to fit my image of the universe.' _You honestly believe that? _'No, but it's worth a shot.'

Shana looks me straight in the eye. "Lead the way."

*Scene Break*

I love this hill. It was just such a nice hill, and it was really calm and almost soothing. It's such a stark contrast to the approaching army. Shana and I stood on the hill and waited for them to arrive.

"So, what can we expect?" Alastor asks.

"That depends," I tell them. "Can't you use that magic time stopper and just freeze them?"

Shana shakes her head. "If I do that and we attack then, there's no telling how the balance of the world would be affected. It could cause this entire section of the planet to collapse in on itself."

"And if we just freeze them and just stall them like that?" I ask.

"I'm not entirely sure I could keep a fuzetsu of that size up long enough for everyone to retreat," Shana says.

"Then, I'm not really sure," I reply. "Like Louise mentioned, In previous times it was only 70,000 and I went up against them alone. The results of those battles were me being hit with a good solid case of dead," I tell them.

Shana look at me, stunned. "You died?"

I nod. "Both times. After dying the second time, things get a lot less scary."

"H-how are you still here?" Alastor asks.

"A girl in the forest used a magic ring to heal my wounds. So there's our plan. Keep fighting until you notice the other has gone down. Grab them and escape into the forest," I tell Shana. _A plan worthy of a madman._

We both stand up and look directly at the approaching army. Shana puts on her magic coat and pulls out her sword. Her hair changes to red, and I assume her eyes did the same. I pull out Derflinger with my left hand and the magic bookmark with my right. I will the bookmark to become a sword, and it obeys, extending into Blutsagur.

"I will be completely honest with you," I tell Shana. "I can't guarantee that we're going to make it out alive. This is one of those times where things are left more up to chance then anything else. Any last words?"

_Not true! We do have a chance to live! Just a little Lifdrasil revive and-_ 'No can do. I couldn't do it last time either, remember? Thanks to the time warp, the contract with Tiffania was severed, so no revive powers' _Wait, what? Son of a bitch! No wonder you didn't use it last time. _'Since the Gandalfar contract had to be reinstated, I knew that the Lifdrasil contract was gone too. You didn't know?' _I thought you were just trying to keep things fair. This sucks, now we can't blow things up on command._

I ignore my Inner Monologue's ramblings and take a glance at the silent Shana. I don't know what she's thinking, but I can tell she's deep in thought about something. Before I could ask what she was thinking about, she grabs the neck of my jacket with her free hand.

"Eh?"

She looks at me directly in the eye for a few seconds. I don't know what I was expecting her to do or say, but whatever it was, I was way off. Before I can even begin to think of a question to ask her, Shana pulls me towards her. Our faces get closer until finally, our lips overlap. _..._ '... What? No squeeful comment about getting to kiss your idol?' _NOT ENOUGH THINKING POWER, SHUTTING DOWN._

Eventually Shana let's me go and breaks the kiss. Not bothering to say anything, she turns and starts running towards the army of 700,000. I stand there for about twenty seconds, too stunned to move. Then I realize that I need to move or I'll be leaving Shana to fight on her own. I tighten my grip on my two swords and charge right in.

Just like last time, the army was surprised that only two people charging them, so they severely underestimated us. We both jumped right into the fray and began taking out soldiers one by one. This was the first time I ever got to see Shana put some actual effort into her fighting, and it really scared me. She kept slashing and vaulting over soldiers like this was all some kind of savage ballet. Flames flew in all directions.

I tore away my gaze so that I'd be able to focus on hopefully not dying. Having two swords was actually a really big help. Being able to block with one sword and still have another to swing around was really useful. Blutsagur never did that light show again, but that didn't stop it from being an arc of pure destruction. Since it was such a big sword, it managed to crush the defenses of those who tried to block it.

Despite the fact that I had some back up this time, or maybe that Shana had back up, this could still only be described as a losing battle. I was starting to tire out and I had about three arrows lodged in various parts of my torso. Shana was doing better, but not by much. Despite how powerful she was, even she couldn't block attacks from all sides at the same time. If this kept up we would both be dead, and that would be terrible.

The battle continues on, and I can feel myself nearing the end. My movements are slowing down. I turn Blutsagur back into a bookmark to drop some weight and stick with Derflinger. That helps a little, but it's not enough. The spells are coming too fast to absorb and I'm being hit too much. I take out one more guard and then I fall to my knees. I use Derflinger to try and support myself, but the pain catches up to me. I feel my consciousness fade away.

*Louise 2 POV*

*Scene Break*

When I woke up the first thing I noticed was wind. I sat up and saw that we were apparently on a ship. _We must be escaping Albion,_ I thought to myself. Then I got onto my feet. _I need to stop the army!_

"You're awake." I turn and see Louise standing behind me.

"What am I doing here? I need to go hold off the army!" I turn around with the intent to run off and fight the army, but Louise puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Don't. There's no need. This is the last retreating ship," she tells me.

"What? Then what about the army? What..." I notice for the first time that Shana and Saito aren't here.

"No. Are you saying..." My voice trails off.

"Yes. They went to go hold off the army. There's a good chance they're already gone."

I freeze in place. There's no way. They can't just be gone.

"No! That's not true! We have to go help them! They're not dead," I say more to myself then anyone.

"I'm sorry, there's almost no chance that they're still alive."

"You don't know that!"

"Yes I do!" At this outburst I turn around and see that tears are falling from her eyes. "You don't think I know this? You don't think this has happened already? It has! And I have to deal with it! I have to deal with losing him again!" At that remark Louise breaks down and falls to her knees, crying. I do the exact same. I just didn't know what else I could do.

*In the forest*

"They're doing... Good, I guess," the girl with mismatched eyes says to herself. "I mean, I don't know what would constitute good when fighting an army of that size, but... It's relatively good?"

The girl had long blonde hair that came down to her waist. A single streak of white stood out among the hair, in that it seemed to possess an almost otherworldly glow. The girl's eyes were, as mentioned repeatedly, mismatched. Her left eye was colored a shade of crimson red, her right eye colored a calming azure blue. Her current choice of attire consisted of a simple white tank top paired with a black skirt. Her skin was rather pale, and it had been often suggested by her friend that she get more sun.

Ignoring that, there was a sudden burst as a giant column of fire explodes forth from the battlefield, startling the girl. The fire takes a form, but it's too distant to clearly make out. At the sight of the fire monster, the remaining member of the army either turn and run, or are vaporized by the intense fires.

"She let Alastor loose?" The girl asks herself in surprise. "They never mentioned that little detail. Maybe Shana never told them."

After the explosion, the forest was eerily quiet. The silence made the girl nervous.

"Where are they? They all should have been here by now."

As if in answer to the girl the world ignores, there's a sound of rustling branches, signaling someone's approach. The girl lets loose a quick "eep!" Before hiding herself away.

The sound was caused by the one known as the flame haze of Alastor coming through. She stops in a clearing, where she puts down a body. A body recognizable as the gandalfar, Saito Hiraga.

As the girl watches, the flame haze puts her head to the boy's chest, checking for a heartbeat. The forest remained silent. The flame haze first begins fighting tears, then fails as the sobs echo into the empty forest.

The girl can only watch as the flame haze cries into Saito's chest. A wish to help springs forth, but is squashed down by reason. _I can't interfere too early. Ooohh. Where are those two! They should have been here by now!_

The girl's thought process is broken by the silence. A silence that wasn't there just seconds ago. The flame haze has given up on sorrow. The sorrow and mourning is replaced by anger. Anger at the world. Anger at the army for bringing it to this point. Anger at him, for being far too reckless with this. Anger at herself, for letting someone important to her die, yet again. That anger manifests very slowly. First, her hair becomes the crimson red she was named for, and a circle of flames fans out around her.

The girl quickly notes that the flame haze isn't done yet. The flames then quickly change. The bright crimson flames melt away, and are replaced by flames of pure silver. The girl's hair flares up and once again changes color to a silver matching the circle of flames.

"Nononono! Too early for that!" The girl exclaims. "Don't do that!"

The girl with the mismatched eyes holds out her palm towards the furious flame haze.

"Stop!"

With that one word, everything obeys. The flames freeze in place, then disappear. The flame haze falls over, her hair returning to black as she falls over, asleep.

The girl steps out of her hiding place and approaches the two and quietly observes them. She nervously scans the area.

"What would've happened if she'd have continued?" The girl wonders. She shakes her head. "No. Can't let that happen until it's needed. Still, here. The least I can do."

After saying that, Saito's wounds close up, and the faint sound of a beating heart can be heard coming from his chest. Likewise, Shana's wounds also heal themselves, and there's a faint glow as new clothes appear over her body.

"Figured you could use those after all that. Sleep tight. Help'll be on the way."

And then the girl walked off, having provided all she felt she could. Alastor wondered who this girl was, and cursed himself for not asking who she was. Minutes after, he found no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember any details of the incident. As if the memories were simply deleted.


	11. Life

Author Notes:

Last time I wrote these events from Louise's perspective. I couldn't think of anyway I could do this chapter without it feeling too similar, so I went with Saito's perspective. I'm a little saddened that I couldn't do more with the Louises, but it was unavoidable.

Also, Shana summarizing the history of the Reiji Maigo is pretty pointless, and only based on the knowledge I've gained from the anime, putting it in the same situation as anything involving Snake of the Festival. Just like with that explanation, the fact that I may be getting key facts about something as important as this slightly worries me. Read, review, leave feedback, and enjoy the story!

**Life**

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I woke up at all. The second thing I notice that I'm absolutely covered in bandages and I feel like I've been on painkillers for weeks. _Well that's all fine and dandy, but you still took a lot a damage. Hell, even I felt it. _'It was really that bad?' _Yep. Not as bad as what you'll see if you turn your head slightly to the right._

I turned my head and saw Shana sleeping right next to me. She was also covered in bandages, but what was weird was her outfit. Her black jumpsuit was gone, and now she was wearing what looked like a school uniform from Japan. It didn't really look bad on her, but I was busy wondering where she got it from. Last thing I remember we were busy almost dying fighting off the 700,000. Judging by the condition of the bedding, neither of us had gotten out of it for a while, leaving only one option. _Aliens. _'No, someone took her out of her original clothes and put her in that.' _... That is also a possibility. But who? And where the hell did they find it? And why are you a hell of a lot less injured then the previous battles?_

I notice he's right. The amount of bandages was still the same, but I wasn't feeling anywhere near as sore or in pain as either of the last Saxe-Gotha battles. Then I noticed my left hand. I still had my runes._Success! We can keep the death count at two! _'While I'm grateful for not being a a technical zombie once again, this only creates more problems. Last time I died from my injuries. Someone must have healed my injuries before I died.' _Yeah, that's what Tiffania's there for! _'No, she found me after one of the orphans found me. I was already dead by that time.' _Maybe they were just a bit faster this time? _Seeing no other possibility I have no choice but to agree.

I sit up and look around the room. It's a wooden room, not much decoration. There's a window and a door, but nothing else except for the two beds occupied by me and Shana.

"Oh? You're awake?" I turn when I hear the voice and see a familiar face standing in the doorway.

"Yeah, just woke up. How long was I out?" I ask.

"About two weeks," Tiffania the half elf tells me. "You and your friend had very serious injuries when we found you. If we hadn't found you when we did you'd be dead."

"I see. Thank you."

"Um... If it's alright with you, how did you get those injuries?" Tiffania asks. "Was it that war?"

I nod, but say nothing. She understands, and leaves after changing my bandages out for new ones. I may have not died this time, but I still felt like I did. Shana was still sleep. Considering how much energy it looked like she had used, that wasn't surprising. Still ridiculously sore, I laid back down and tried to sleep it off.

*Scene Break*

*Louise 1 POV*

It had been about a week since the war ended. Louise 2 and I never left the room. We were both to upset to do anything. Occasionally we would leave to go eat, take a bath, and things like that, but that was it. Other than that the two of us both just sat on the bed, depressed. One day there was a knock on the door.

"Louise?" came Montmorency's voice.

"Go away, we're trying to wallow in our own sorrow," I tell her.

Montmorency opens the door and walks in with Guiche.

"Louise, both of you, you can't live like this. Neither of you have left the room unless it was to eat or take a bath," Montmorency tells us.

"She's right," Guiche says, "Yes, they were both great people, but they're gone now. There's no way they survived taking on an army of 700,000 on their own."

Louise 2 shakes her head. Without saying anything she grabs her wand and stands up.

"Summon servant?" I ask her.

She nods. "I'll cast it, and nothing will happen. The gate won't open because they're alive."

I don't say anything. I simply look away. She finishes the chant and brings down her wand. Eventually the silence is too much for me to bear and I look to see the results. Guiche, Montmorency and I are stunned, and Louise 2 is smiling happily. The gate didn't open. Shana was still alive.

"I knew it! I knew it! She's alive!" She says.

_If she's alive then maybe..._ I get up and snatch her wand and cast the same spell. Nothing happens. I'm too stunned to say anything. I try again, just to make sure and, again, the gate remains closed. I could almost feel the joy building up inside of me.

"He's alive! They're both alive!" I cry out. Louise 2 and I hug each other in happiness and start jumping up and down with joy.

"Th-that's impossible! How could they take on 700,000 and live?" Montmorency asks shocked.

Guiche nods his head, almost like he expected this. "She was very strong. I personally don't find this surprising at all."

Louise 2 and I let go of each other for a moment. We look each other in the eyes and an unspoken conversation happens. We grab whatever bags we can and start filling them with everything we'll need.

"What are you two doing?" Guiche asks.

"I thought that was obvious," I reply.

"We're going to go find them," Louise 2 adds.

*Scene Break*

*Saito POV*

When I woke up from my nap, my chest felt a lot heavier then normal, almost like something was resting on it. _I knew it! Being in Tiffania's presence for too long causes people to spontaneously grow breasts! What an amazing discovery! _Not bothering to reply, I look to see what the problem is. What I see is Shana sleeping with her head on my chest. _Well, that was another possibility. _'I'm more concerned with when she did that. I don't think I've been asleep for more then another day or two at most, and It still looks like Shana's been asleep too.' _Maybe she did it unconsciously? Like she had a dream about Yuji or something and put herself in this position unintentionally?_

Trying my best not to wake Shana up, I try to push her off. I manage to slide her off onto the bed next to mine and sit up. Apparently my little nap had the intended effect, because I could actually move without my whole body feeling like it was on fire, though I think Tifa's healing might have been a factor in that.

"Huh?" I hear off to my side and see that Shana's woken up.

"Why hello there Miss Sunshine, did you enjoy your little nap?" I ask in as cheerful a voice as I can.

"Wh-What happened? Where are we?" She asks, still clearly half asleep. She looks down and realizes that she's wearing the uniform. "How'd I get in this outfit?"

"We are currently at an orphanage in the forest near Saxe-Gotha where we have been resting and healing since we held off the army. We after being looked after by a half-elf named Tiffania who found us in the woods and healed us. At least I think that's what happened. I don't know about your outfit, it was like that when I woke up."

"The last thing I remember is that battle. Everything after that is a blur," Shana says.

"Yes, that tends to happen when you almost die," Alastor says.

"We survived?" Shana asks.

I nod and show her my runes. "I don't know how, but somehow we survived. The Louises are probably on there way right now."

Shana closes her eyes like she's thinking about something. _Maybe it has something to do with the pre-battle? _'What? What pre- oh. That.' I feel myself blush when I remember what Shana did before we charged the invading army. I look away so that she doesn't notice.

"About how long until the Louise's arrive?" Shana asks.

I ponder for a minute. "Well, when I first woke up Tifa said that I had been out for about two weeks. Assuming I've only been asleep for another day or two on top of that, I'd say about three weeks. Why do you ask?"

Shana stands up and starts undoing some of the bandages. Then she gives me one of those death glares she's so very good at. _I'll be honest, I missed the death glares. They seem so much more natural. _'I'm in complete agreement with that statement.'

"Get up, we're going to start training," Shana tells me.

"What? Why? Shouldn't we be resting and healing?" I ask her.

"There's something I want to test. Come on," and with that she turns and walks out of the room. Seeing no other option, I got up and followed her.

*Scene Break*

Tiffania was really worried when she saw us up an about, but Shana was able to convince her that we'd be fine. Eventually Shana led me into a clearing in the forest. She put on her coat and turned to me.

"Draw Blutsagur."

And so I did. Shana didn't seem to be in the best of moods right now. Once I had the bookmark in my hand I willed the previously small bookmark to extend into the giant sword known as Blutsagur. _I do that every night. _'You don't even have any arms.'

"Okay, now what? I doubt this impromptu training session is all because you really like this sword," I say.

"Do you remember back at the inn when you used Blutsagur?" Shana asks me.

"Of course. I blocked the guy's sword, Blutsagur lit up and he went flying backwards at speed that could snap most people's necks," I tell her. "What was with that? You said that's not something that should have happened."

She nods. "Blutsagur has a special ability. When Power of Existence is passed through the sword, anything in contact with it is instantly wounded."

My head tilts to the side on instinct. "So anything in contact with the sword is instantly wounded? Like, their skin just kind of tears itself apart or something?"

"Similar," Alastor says, giving me the short answer to a question that needed a much longer one.

"Then how come all it did was just blow the poor sap backwards?" I ask, "Other then any injuries he might have gotten when he hit the wall, he seemed fine."

"That could be because you didn't put any Power of Existence into it," Shana says. "Since you're not a torch or a flame haze, you can't inherently use your existence to power tools like that. Instead you used your own natural energy, producing a different effect."

_Why is it that everything pertaining to her line of work only applies to us because of loopholes? _'Would you prefer that we didn't get the awesome sword that launches people around?' _You make an excellent point._

"Let me guess, the point of this is to try and train me to control my energy and use it, isn't it?" I ask.

Shana nods. "First, a little preparation."

She holds her hand to her chest and a small ball of light appears. Then she throws the ball and it hits me square in the chest. Instead of hitting me and disappearing or bouncing off, the energy melts into my chest. I instantly feel wide awake.

"There, your base energy should now be much higher," Shana says. "Now you should be able to last much longer without tiring out."

_Wait, she sacrificed her energy so you could have more? _'Maybe I could actually stand up to her in battle now!' _What? No, I was thinking something else entirely. After all, most girls don't like it when their man tires out before they do. _'... I hate you so much.'

"We'll start with some basics and work our way up," Shana says, giving off the feeling that she's done this before.

*Scene Break*

"Okay, I think I got it this time," I said trying my best to not collapse from exhaustion.

Shana had been training me for about three weeks and it was torturous. Hell, even Agnis was shocked at the intensity of Shana's training. The results couldn't be denied though, I was definitely improving at a substantial rate. My fighting skills were getting better, though Shana could still beat me, and I could actually use Blutsaugr's ability on command now. Now I was working on the next step: making a throwable fireball. _Maybe if you yell HADOKEN it'll work! _'I doubt that. I just need a little more practice.'

I closed my eyes, concentrated, and felt a surge of energy rush towards my hand. I tried to make the energy form a solid fireball above the palm of my hand. Then it exploded and sent me flying backwards into a tree.

My plan is to get up and try again, but once I stand up I collapse in a heap on the floor from exhaustion. I don't know how Shana was able to do even more powerful things much more frequently.

I just lied there pitifully for a few seconds when I heard footsteps.

"You're not going to accomplish anything if you overwork yourself," I hear Alastor say.

"He's right. Just come back to the orphanage and rest for a bit," Shana says.

She offers me a hand and I take it. On the way back I felt a cooling breeze from the forest, and I felt like my strength had been restored. I looked around to see where that breeze came from, but there wasn't anything else in the forest except for me and Shana.

*Scene Break*

If I wasn't wrong, and nothing held them up, the Louises should be showing up today. This should also be the debut of Myoznitnirn in this time, if I'm not mistaken.

I told Shana I was heading out for more training and went to the clearing where we fought Myoznitnirn for the first time. I stood in the center of the clearing and decided to actually get some training done, maybe I can get the fireball this time. Another explosion. Try again, another explosion. Repeat six more times.

"Damn it!" I say, directing my frustration at the grass around me. "Almost had it."

I unsteadily get back up and get ready to try again.

"Saito!"

I turn just in time to see Louise 1 tackle me to the ground. As happy as I was to see her, being tackled to the floor after repeatedly blowing yourself up is never pleasant. Still, I smile and give her a pat on the head. I notice that Louise 2 is also there.

"How are things with you two?" I ask as nonchalantly as possible.

Before this happy little scene can go on, familiar, obviously evil laughter is heard.

"Okay Louise, time to get up," I tell her as I push her off me.

We both stand up and see Myoznitnirn herself stepping out of the woods.

"You're here for the present void mages, we have no chance of defeating you, you and your master are just too powerful for us, blah blah blah, can we just start the fight?" I say while drawing Derflinger from my back.

Myoznitnirn looks stunned for moment, but quickly regains her composure.

"So you know that you're doomed yet you still fight? Fools!" Then she does something completely unexpected and pulls out what looks like a revolver and points it at Louise 1. _No. No no no no no no no no. Back the **** up. How does she get to use a gun? Aren't magic objects her thing? **** this ****! That is unfair! I call serious bull****! _'Calm down, it's only a gun.' _I know! A gun we don't get and she does! How is that fair?_

"Drop your weapons and stand still or I shoot the girl! We only need one of the two for the plan!" She yells at us.

We all freeze in place. Seeing no other option I drop Derflinger and the Louises drop their wands.

"If I may ask," Louise 1 begins. "I thought you were a specialist in magical artifacts. Why a gun?"

Myoznitnirn laughs. "You've done your research I see! You're correct, I do have control over magical artifact, and this gun is one! Observe," she flips out the chamber and shows us that the gun is empty, "This gun has no ammo, it doesn't fire ammunition, it fires magical energy. Since I have control over such energies, I can fire this gun an infinite number of times. One shot and your body will overflow with energy causing it to burn from the inside out. Pleasant, isn't it?" She finishes with another evil laugh.

_Damn, I can't think of a way out of this. Shana doesn't know we're in trouble and probably thinks any commotion is from your training, you're drained from failing so many times, and the Louises can't do anything without their wands, and Myoz has a ****ing gun!_

Realizing my inner monologue is right I get really upset. I'm not upset at the hopelessness of the situation, I'm upset because my inner monologue made a really good point. I hate it when he does that, it doesn't seem in character.

"It seems that you've realized the hopelessness of your situation," Myoznitnirn begins. "Quietly step forward and come over to me. Make any sudden moves and I will shoot you."

The Louises step forward and I, still unsteady from using so much energy from trying to create a fireball, wobbled forward.

Then I felt a brief, but refreshing, gust of wind an I feel like all my energy is filled. Not bothering to wonder where it came from, I tried one last time. Not moving my arms so as to not draw attention, I tried my best to let my energy flow into a form I could use. I felt the energy flow to my hand and I knew I had it. I could do it this time. I stopped moving, earning me the undivided attention of Myoznitnirn and the Louises.

"Why'd you stop? Looking to burn from the inside out?" Myoznitnirn asks.

I smile. "Me get burnt? Not at all. You on the other hand should watch out."

Before anyone can question me I let the energy flow onto the palm of my hand. The energy rippled until it started to take the form of a small silver ball. _Woot! Silver flames! Awesome! _'I wasn't expecting an oddly colored flame. If I did I would have hoped for something else." _Like what? _'Like maybe a sort of dark blue, or even a black flame. That would have been awesome.' _You best pray that you don't get black flames! Black flames are not a good sign of anything ever!_

Everyone stares at me stunned, but that only lasts for a moment. Before Myoz can aim and shoot I toss my fireball and it hits the hand she was holding the gun with. She cries out in pain and drops the gun, clutching her burnt hand with her other. She glares at me, almost if trying to curse me with just a look. My response is a silent slight raising of my hand and spawning another fireball. A look of fear crosses Myoznitnirn's face and she turns and runs off. I disperse the fireball and calmly walk over to where she was and pick up the gun. It could be useful having an infinite ammo, one shot kill gun, so I stick it in my pocket for a future emergency. 'Happy now?' _More then you could ever know. This will makes things so much easier! I christen this gun, 'Trigger happy' because that's exactly how I'll act when I wield it! _'You mean when I wield it, right?' _Huh? Oh, right._

I turn to the Louises who have what might be the best look of surprise I have ever seen in my life. They both open their mouths, probably to ask how I just did that, but nothing comes out. They both just stare at me with their mouths agape.

"I probably should have mentioned that. Shana taught me how to harness my energy to be able to do things like that. Speaking of which, we should probably go see her," I mention casually before grabbing both of their arms and leading them back to the forest,

I heard a brief rustle in the forest and turned my head to see what it was. I thought I caught a glimpse of white, but it disappeared so quickly that it must just have been my imagination.

*Scene Break*

*Louise 1 POV*

By the time we got the Tiffania's orphanage, my head was still reeling. Saito used magic. He used magic, he threw a fireball, and he didn't even have a wand. What had Shana been teaching him this past month? When we got back we sat down and explained to Shana and a worried looking Tiffania what had happened. Tiffania left halfway through the story to go take care of the orphans, so it was only Shana, Saito, Louise 2, and I in the room. We explained that we were threatened by another familiar of void, but Saito scared her off. At that Shana turned to Saito.

"You finally got it?" She asked.

Saito nodded, put his arm slightly in front of him, his palm facing the ceiling. Suddenly the silver ball of flame appeared in his hand again. I thought Shana had a brief look of panic on her face, but when I looked again, she seemed relieved, so I must have imagined it.

"Shana?" I hear Louise 2 ask. "Why is the flame silver? That can't be normal."

Shana shakes her head. "Actually, in this case, it is. Saito, remember when I gave you some of my energy to increase yours?"

He nods. "Yeah, a ball of light appeared and you threw it at me. It melted into my chest and suddenly I felt like I just had a sudden shot of energy."

"The energy I gave you wasn't normal energy, it was energy from a treasure tool called the Reiji Maigo," Shana tells us.

"Let me guess, something from your line of work?" I ask.

Shana nods her head. "The Reiji Maigo is a device that tampers with time. Normally a torch's existence slowly fades away as time goes own, but the Reiji Maigo refills that existence every night at midnight, giving a torch immortality and an infinite supply of energy."

Saito lets out a low whistle. "Impressive little thing, but what's that got to do with us?"

Shana gives him an annoyed look, but continues. "The creator of the device, a very powerful denizen named Pheles, made it so that the torch she fell in love with could live forever. One day they were attacked by the most powerful assassin in Guze. The torch suffered heavy injuries, so Pheles sealed him inside so that he could still live. However, she didn't notice that the assassin saw what she was doing and locked another being in there. That being was known as the Silver, one of the most powerful beings to walk the earth, and wielder of the silver flames," She pauses for a second to let this all sink in. I silently ponder how so many people can be considered the most powerful in the world, but remain silent.

"So?" Louise 2 asked. "What happened next?"

Shana nodded and continued her story. "Since the previous holder of the device was in a state that could be considered dead, the device warped to it's next host-"

"Question," Saito says while raising a hand. "What do you mean it warped?"

"When devices created by flame haze and denizens have no owner, they are stored inside of a torch, who then becomes know as a mystes. Since the owner of the Reiji Maigo had technically died, it warped to the next torch. A boy named Sakai Yuji."

At that we fall silent. Shana didn't seem as broken up over talking about Yuji as in the past. Why would that be?

Shana shakes her head. "Sorry, that doesn't have anything to do with the original question. Anyway, I'm the current holder if the Reiji Maigo, and the energy I gave Saito came from the leftover energy the silver left behind when he was taken out, hence the silver flames."

We all nod our heads to show that we understand. Shana lowers her head, like she's busy thinking about something. After a bit she raises her head and looks at our group.

"Sorry, but could Saito and Louise 2 leave?" Shana tells us. "There's something I need to talk about with Louise 1 in private."

Saito and other Louise look confused, but they stand up and leave the room. Shana turns to me, but remains silent.

"Shana, what's wrong?" I ask.

I think I see her lips move, but I don't hear anything. Eventually she seems to gain enough courage to say what was on her mind. I almost wish she hadn't.

"I love Saito," she says to me, a blush on her face.

My mind freezes up. There's no way I could have heard what I thought I just heard, right?

"Wh-what? I-I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you right. D-did you just say you l-l-l-love S-Saito?" I ask, my voice shaking.

She still looks like she's embarrassed, but she nods her head. "I did."

We just look at each other in silence for a minute. Shana is the first to speak.

"I'm sorry Louise, I know he's already married to you, but... I just... He's just so like..." She seems to be having a little trouble finding the right words, but I can tell what she's trying to say.

"Shana, it's okay. I can tell that you're seeing him as Yuji, and I can see why that would cause that reaction. I'm not going to get mad at you for something you have no control over," I tell her with a smile while giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

She remains silent for a moment. Then she looks at me and smiles. "Thanks Louise."

I return the smile and we fetch Saito and Louise 2. Luckily Tiffania actually has a bed that looks like it'll support four people, so no one has to sleep on the floor. From left to right, it's Louise 2, Shana, Saito, and then me. The others were asleep in minutes. As always, I never get that lucky, and am stuck being unable to sleep. Even though I had almost supported Shana, I was scared. What if Saito starts liking her more then me? What would I do if he leaves me for her? I wrap an arm around Saito for almost moral support and fall asleep not to long after that.

*Outside the room*

"Come on."

"No."

"Come on!"

"No Nat! Why should I introduce myself to them?" A girl with white hair asked.

"Well it's only polite, isn't it?" A girl with wavy blue hair asked in response. "I mean, you are going to be helping them out, aren't you?"

"That's if they decide to believe me at all!" The white haired girl says in a panic. "Who knows how introducing myself to them could go!"

"Well you're going to do it soon anyway, aren't you?"

The white haired girl simply groans, accepting her fate. "Fine, fine. They're asleep though, you know that right?"

"Yeah, but Alastor isn't! I gotta go. Have fun talking to a god!"

"W-wait! Nat!" The white haired girl cries out as Natalie pushes her through the open door. The white haired girl gets her foot caught on something, trips and falls to the ground with a thud. She turns and looks back at the doorway, but Natalie has already disappeared.

"And who, may I ask, are you?" Alastor voice from his pendant.

_Act natural_, the girl says to herself.

"Oh, hi there!" The white haired girl says to herself as she bounces to her feet. "Name's Ariana, nice to meet you!"

"And what might you be doing here?" Alastor asks.

"Hey, no need to be suspicious of me or anything, though that probably won't win me any favors," Ariana says with a shrug. "Just thought I'd drop by and introduce myself. A little bit into the future we'll be working together, so I thought I'd be nice and take the initiative."

"What do you mean by that?" Alastor asks.

"Well, I guess I'll start with a warning of sorts. Those two, Saito and Louise. Well, future Louise anyway. They think they know what's going to happen, right? Well, just a head's up. They don't. Not for this, anyway. Don't worry. That warning doesn't apply yet. I'll be back when it does."

"Then why tell me this?" Alastor asks.

"Just thought I'd be nice and introduce myself first, just like I said," Ariana says with a shrug. "That's about all I've got to say, really. See you when the warning's in full effect!"

And with that, Ariana left the room, then the building as a whole. Once she stepped outside, her phone buzzed. She opened it up to see a text from Natalie.

_Things went well I assume?_

_They could've gone worse. I'll get going for now and come back when it's time to start getting ready._

With that, the girl known as Ariana proceeded to leave, her business currently being elsewhere.


	12. Castle

**Castle**

The Louises, Shana and myself were currently in a meeting with Princess Henrietta. The day after our group reunited we made it our first priority to see the princess and let her know what had happened so far. When we got there, Henrietta began practically begging the Louises for forgiveness about allowing the general to order them to head off to their death. The Louises tried to console her, "Anything for the princess!" And all the other things they always say around the princess.

Henrietta apologized to Shana for putting her into a situation where she could have died, but Shana said it was okay since she didn't actually die. The only thing the princess did to acknowledge that I was there was briefly look in my direction before going back to apologizing to the rest of the group. _Damn it! When did the princess become such a bitch? HEY! Princess! We nearly died because of your generals and you're busy apologizing to the people who were most likely to survive? I call big bull****!_

I didn't get anything from the princess, not even another look. Until the Louises mentioned how I stopped Myoznitnirn. Henrietta gasped and turned to me.

"Is it true? You're a mage?" She asked.

In response I hold hand parallel with the floor, palm facing the ceiling, in what I call show off pose #1 and spawn a fireball. Henrietta gasps again.

"H-How? Are you using ancient magic?" She asks.

_Oh yeah, I forgot. Only ancient magic users can use magic in this world without a wand. _'We probably should have thought about that.' _Oh well! More respect for us!_

"It's not ancient magic," I tell the princess. "Honestly, I'm not sure what to call it. Shana?"

Shana ponders for a moment. "Since it's really nothing more then a physical manifestation of someone's own internal energy we definitely can't call it magic."

"Why not call it energy attacks?" Alastor says, suggesting the obvious. _If it's so obvious then why did no one think of it?_

Henrietta looks like she's thinking about something for a minute. She goes to her desk, reaches into a drawer and pulls out a chevalier mantle.

"Here," She says while offering me the awesome cape. "Since you are technically a mage, there's no problem with giving you this."

I thank her and put on my awesome cape. _Holy crap we are badass! We have a katana, a giant sword that launches people by making contact, an infinite ammo gun that kills things with one shot, an awesome cape that flows in the wind and we can shoot fire from our hands! We are the definition of badass! _'I think that's giving us a little too much credit.'

*Scene Break*

"I never get tired of seeing this academy," I tell the group.

It was true, no matter how many times I see it, I'm always glad when we get back to the academy after a long trip. I always felt a lot safer then usual, and I loved the feeling of security.

"Enjoy it Saito, this period of peace never lasts long," I hear Louise 1 say.

"Way to kill the mood. Can't we just enjoy the moments of peace we do have?" I ask her.

Before she can reply Siesta runs up to us.

"Louise! Louise! Saito! Shana! Her majesty has appointed me to become your personal maid!" She tells us.

"What? Really?" Louise 2 asks.

Siesta nods her head and pulls out a sheet of paper from her pocket. As expected, the paper is in the princess' handwriting and it says that Siesta has been assigned as our personal maid.

We all head up to the Louises' room when we notice a rather large problem. _Um... Crap. That bed is not going to hold anymore people. _My inner monologue is right. Five people, one bed, one pile of hay. The bed has proven capable of holding three people, and the hay could hold two, the problem was how to divide it up.

All five of us ponder for a minute. "Draw straws?" Siesta offers. We nod in agreement and I pick up five peaces of straw from the hay pile. _Twenty bucks on the obvious winners. _'If you're thinking who I think you're think about, then I pray you're wrong.' _Seriously man, you have a one in four chance of bedding her. You better get used to it._

"Okay, shortest two straws sleep on the hay, deal?" I ask the group. They all nod their heads.

They all grab a straw and we measure them to see the "winners." Subverting everyone's expectations, Shana and I weren't the ones sharing a pile of hay. No, we would be sharing a bed with Louise 1._Dammit! There goes twenty bucks. _'You don't have any money. Hell, you're a voice in my head. Who would get the money?' Louise 2 and Siesta didn't seem happy about having to sleep on the floor, but they realized there was no other option.

Similar to the first time around, when I had to share a bed with Louise and Siesta, I was currently very worried about my life expectancy. Sure, I doubt that Louise 1 and Shana would get into a situation that would threaten my life, but I'm pretty sure I have a valid reason for being scared. _I wouldn't worry too much. After all, Louise 1 probably doesn't even know Shana loves you! _'And when she finds out?' _A calamity of apocalyptic proportions will occur. No one will be safe from the resulting cat fight over who gets you. Enjoy these last few moments of your life. _'I thought you said I didn't have to worry about my life!' _Yeeeeah, I may or may not have lied. Have fun!_

Despite my worrying, I eventually manage to fall asleep.

*Scene Break*

Well, it had been about a week since we got back, and I had managed to survive each night. Sure, more then once I woke up to find Louise, Shana, or both sleeping with their heads on my shoulder or my chest, almost like they were competing for my body's real estate. _Everyone look out! Saito, the harem master, is at work! _'What? Harem master? It's two girls, one of which I married, and the other only likes me because I'm similar to someone she used to love. How does that make me a harem master?' _Good point. Trying getting Louise 2 and Siesta to love you! If we try hard enough, I'm sure this bed can hold five people! _'... I can't come up with a response to that.'

Still, things could be worse. Eventually it was the day of that Masquerade ball, and our little group was indifferent on the event. Louise 1 and I knew what was going to happen, and Louise 2 and Shana had gained enough experience by this point to know that something was going to happen.

Still, we decided to at least attempt to have fun at the ball. Like every time, since Shana and I were familiars we didn't have to use that magic mirror to become anyone. Me and Shana were just standing on the balcony outside the main room, waiting for the Louises to show up, or for something to happen. Eventually Shana turns to me.

"So what happens here?" She says.

"What do you mean by that?" I ask.

"I think we all know by now that none of these events ever go very well, so what happens during this ball?"

"Well... Normally Myoznitnirn, that other void familiar that attacked the Louises and I back in Albion, kidnaps Louise and things go on from there. It doesn't look like that's happening this time though," I say.

"And why's that?" Alastor asks.

"Because here they come right now," I say as I point out the two people coming towards us.

Shana looks and see the two people walking towards us. The two being Cattleya and... Shana? _YES! Two Shanas! Now we get of them at the same time! Epic Success! _'Sorry, it's probably just one of the Louises having taken on her appearance using that fancy mirror.' _Ah, damn it. And here I thought I was the luckiest guy in the world. Oh well, the existence of more then one Shana at a time would probably result in your demise anyway, so this is probably a plus._

The other Shana, clad in that leather outfit she was wearing before the battle at Saxe-Gotha runs up to us, smiling. I realize that this is the first time I've ever seen Shana smile, even if it isn't the real Shana, and I feel a shiver go down my spine. _Why? _'I don't like the sight of Shana smiling. It's way too cute and seems almost unnatural.' _You admit it! Shana is cute! _'No, I said the smile as cute.' _Irrelevant! I now have all the evidence I need to get Louise to dump your sorry ass so you can hook up with Shana and all my dreams come true! Muahahaha! _'I don't think I'll ever understand the way your mind works, and quite frankly I'm pretty content with that fact.'

"Hey! How are you enjoying the ball?" The other Shana asks us.

"Well, balls aren't really my thing, especially this one, but it's going well so far," I reply.

Shana doesn't say anything. She's too busy looking at the other Shana, with a stunned look on her face.

"Did no one mention to her how this ball works?" I ask.

The faux Cattleya gets a look similar to "oh crap," on her face.

"Oops, sorry Shana. When entering this ball, attendees use a magical mirror to change into either the person they hold dearest in their heart, or whoever they choose. I'm Louise 1, by the way," Cattleya/Louise 1 tells us.

Shana looks like she's regained her composure and looks at the other Shana. "Louise 2, I presume?"

Shana/Louise 2 nods her head.

"Question," I say. "Why'd you pick Shana? It couldn't have been an automatic thing."

Louise 2/Shana blushes and says nothing for a second. _No. No no no. I refuse to have a rival for Shana's affections. Saito, take her out! _'Rival? One: I don't like Shana that way. Two: Neither does Louise 2.'_Then why didn't she answer when you said she couldn't have possibly turned into Louise 2 automatically? Remember: That mirror only turns you into whoever you love the most automatically. Anyone else has to be specifically chosen. She didn't respond, which means it was automatic. Ergo- _'No. Just, no.'

"Well, Shana's strong and reliable," Louise 2 begins. "She's capable of handling these kind of things easily. Also she's a really powerful mage and cute and-" Louise 2 clamps a hand over her mouth and the four of us set the record for fastest group speed blush.

'... You were right.' _Told you. Quick, do it now! Only we can have Shana's love! _'I never wanted Shana's love, Louise 2 can have her! ... That is not something I thought I would say.' _That happens to you a lot, doesn't it?_

Thankfully, we hear what sounded like a branch breaking in the woods just behind us. Our heads turn and we see a flash of purple light.

"You guys stay here, I'll handle this," I say as I jump over the railing and rush towards the forest, thankful that I have an excuse to get out of the current situation.

Eventually I reach a clearing and I see Tabitha standing at the other side. _Brilliant. Even when we've barely done anything, they still force Tabitha to try and kill us._

"Are you here to kill me or Shana?" I ask Tabitha.

She nods, not really answering the question.

"And why's that? We've shared a total of, what, two sentences? I don't want to fight you, I barely know you!" I say to Tabitha.

Before Tabitha can reply, Myoz swoops in on her giant, flying, stone manta ray.

"Only you showed up? Shame. I was hoping we'd be able to kill both of you at the same time," Myoz says while laughing.

Tired of her constant evil rambling, I reach into my pocket, pull out Trigger Happy and point it at her. _Yes! You used the name I came up with! _'What else am I supposed to call it, the Super Shooter?'

Myoz laughs another evil laugh. "Fool! You think I didn't expect this? A smart user always has a backup!" She says while pulling a revolver similar to Trigger Happy out of nowhere and pointing it at me.

A quick glance shows that Tabitha also has her staff pointed at me. _Let's break things down: You have a gun on Myoz, Myoz has her gun pointed at you, and Tabitha has her staff pointed at you. If you shoot Myoz, Tabitha hits you with a spell, and by the time you manage to aim at and fire at Tabitha, Myoz will have shot you. How do you want to play this?_

Myoz starts laughing again. "Have you realized how hopeless your situation is? Even with your little fire trick, you can't possibly hit two opponents at the same time! You have no-"

Before she can go on, her gun explodes. While she was busy talking I pulled the trigger. I don't know if it was my Gandalfar powers or the fact that I shot the thing, but I could see the bullet when I fired it into the barrel of Myoz's revolver. _Holy Crap! That was awesome! You're like a god of guns! _'Actually that was more luck then anything.' _Even so, it was- Crap! Watch out!_

I turn just in time to see Tabitha finishing up her spell. I spear made of ice appears behind her and she launches it towards me. I focus my energy into my hand and make a fireball bigger then few I've gotten used to and chuck it at the icicle. They connect and the ice spear explodes into about a hundred mini ice spears that go flying in any direction but mine. My fireball keeps going and almost hits Tabitha. Luckily she's quick and uses a wind spell to change the fireball's trajectory. It swerves a bit and lands behind her, exploding upon impact. Apparently I put more power then I thought into that thing, because that was a pretty large explosion. Despite landing maybe 20 feet behind her, Tabitha was still knocked forward by the force of the explosion. I walk up to where she's lying, and offer a hand.

"You alright?" I ask her.

She looks at me, nods, and takes my hand. I pull her up and we both turn to Myoznitnirn, who looks really upset.

"She's been told to kill you and you ignore your opportunity to strike her down and instead help her? Are you an idiot!" She yells at me.

In response I point Trigger Happy at her again and spawn a fireball for good measure in my free hand.

"Like I said, I barely know her. You expect me to kill someone without a reason?" I reply. "You on the other hand, have given me plenty of reasons. Would you care to test your luck?"

A look of fear and outrage crosses Myoznitnirn's face, but apparently she doesn't like the odds, because she snaps her fingers and the manta ray flies off.

"This stuff just keeps getting easier," I say. "You gonna be okay Tab-" I turn to where Tabitha was standing, only to see that she's gone. _Holy crap, Tabitha can teleport. I'm quite scared now. _'She probably just got Slyphid to pick her up.' _That's one stealthy dragon. Oh look, here comes the cavalry._

I notice that Shana and the Louises, now back in their normal bodies, running up to where I was.

"Saito, we heard a gunshot so we came to see what was happening," Louise 1 says.

"What happened? Is anyone in any danger?" Louise 2 asks.

"Myoznitnirn came back, but I was able to get rid of her. Tabitha was ordered to kill me and Shana, but I don't know where she is now."

Louise 2 looks at me shocked, and Louise 1 just nods. I notice Shana's gaze is focused solely on Trigger Happy, and she looks shocked.

"Where did you get that?" she asks, pointing at Trigger Happy.

"This thing? Myoznitnirn had it with her the first time she tried to kill us. She dropped it when she retreated, so I figured I'd hold onto it. I thought it could be useful," I tell her.

"That shouldn't be here," Alastor says. "That is not something that should be in this world."

The Louises and I all have a giant question mark hanging over our heads. "What do you mean by that?" Louise 2 asks.

"That's something from our world," Shana says.

"Yeah, I'm sure you've noticed that quite a few artifacts from back home seem to pop up here," I reply.

She shakes her head. "No, I'm talking about the crimson world. That's a treasure tool, it's a device used by the denizens."

"What's it do?" Louise 1 asks.

"It severs the contract between a flame haze and their contractor. It releases the crimson lord from the flame haze, and act that consumes so much existence that the flame haze is usually killed in the process," Alastor says. "The fact that it's here, in this world, has... unfortunate implications, to say the very least."

Our group is silent for a minute. "Um... Anyway, it's fine if I keep it, right?" I ask.

Shana nods her head, but she still doesn't seem to like the fact that Trigger Happy exists. _I wouldn't either. If I knew that a gun designed specifically for killing me existed in a world where it shouldn't I'd be a little freaked out too. Still, that explains why I thought it was so familiar. _'You knew?' _I had some suspicions. Ah well, that's not important right now._

*Scene Break*

It had been about a week since the ball, and things seemed pretty normal, which is how our group knew something was wrong. I'll try not to bore you with the details, but things went the same way they always did. Slyphid showed up as Irukuukuu, told us Tabitha was kidnapped, and things snowballed from there.

There was, however, one key difference from the last few times this had happened. The group was just me, Shana, the Louises and Slyphid for transportation. When we found out that Tabitha had been kidnapped, the following conversation went a little something like this:

"Oh no! She's been taken to Gallia!" Cried Kirche.

"We must save her!" Said one of the Louises.

"Nooooo! Gallia is dangerous and she was kidnapped by an elf!" Guiche said pathetically.

"Then don't help, we'll go save her," Said Shana while giving all in attendance the most frightening glare ever conceived.

All but me and the Louises cower in fear. Their hearts give out, and they're taken to the closest medical station, leaving our small group of four to go talk to the princess. That conversation went like this:

"Princess! We have to save Tabitha!" Cried either one of the Louises.

"Nooooo! If things go wrong they'll call a war on us!" Henrietta replied.

Shana death glare, princess faints from fear. When she wakes up, she gives us permission to go to Gallia. We even got to keep our awesome capes.

"You know Shana, I'm not sure if you're power to absolutely terrify everyone we meet is a good thing or not," I tell her as we rode on Slyphid towards Gallia. Her response is to punch me in the arm.

"So what's the plan for rescuing Tabitha?" Louise 1 asked the group.

"Plan?" Louise 2 asks back. "Don't you two already have one?"

"Well, we did. However, since Montmorency isn't on hand to make a sleeping potion to put the guards to sleep, we're a little short on options," I say while throwing a quick glance at Shana. She punches me in the arm again. _Keep it up! Maybe next time she'l break your arm. _'I'd make a sarcastic crack about how hilarious you are, but the sad thing is you're probably right.'

"Well, we've got the two most powerful familiars and mages in existence. I say we just bust down the door and force them to set Tabitha free!" Louise 2 says while raising a fist for added effect.

The rest of the group is silent for a minute. "Um... Anyone got a better idea?" I ask.

The group shakes their heads. _I like this plan. It's nice and simple, which is how I know it'll work. _'That makes one of us, but I'm glad at least someone has confidence in the plan.

*Scene Break*

Our group was standing just outside the gate to Alhambra castle. We all had our weapons drawn, and we were ready for a fight. We silently counted off, ran in the gate, and froze in our tracks. Every single guard was lying on the ground, asleep.

We lowered our swords and wands and just looked at the scene in front of us.

"... Did that happen last time?" Louise 2 asks.

Louise 1 and I shake our heads. "No, definitely not," Louise 1 tells the group.

"Then what happened?" I ask. "I kind of doubt that all the people who are supposed to be keeping Tabitha here just all decided it was nap time."

"Not all the people," Shana says while pointing at something.

We look to see where she's pointing and notice a man with a nice hat. _So of course the elf stays awake. Why can't things ever be simple?_

"Who are you supposed to be?" Shana asks Mr. Hat.

"Considering he's still awake, I'd venture to say he's the elf that's kidnapped Tabitha in the first place," I tell her.

"Ah, so you already know what I am," Mr. Hat says to us. "In that case, I would appreciate it if you would turn around and leave. I don't like fights."

"In that case give us Tabitha!" Louise 2 says. "If not, we'll force you too!"

Mr. Hat smiles. "So you choose your demise? Very well."

_Saito, something's wrong. _'What might that be?' _He seems a little too eager to fight us. Isn't he opposed to fighting? _'Good point, but it could just be a side effect of the timeline being altered.' _I guess. I still don't like it._

The four of us ready our weapons of choice once again and get ready for battle.

"He has a magical counter on, so attacks are useless," Louise 1 tells the group. "Dispel is the only spell that could that can get rid of it."

"Focus on the spell, Shana and I will defend the two of you while you cast," I say.

The Louises start chanting, and Shana and I rush the elf. Sure, it was a useless endeavor considering the counter, but we still needed to do something to buy the Louises time. Mr. Hat seems a lot more into this fight then previous times. Usually he just stands there and lets the attacks bounce off his counter, but now he seems like he's toying with us. He casually dodges each of out strikes, almost like this whole thing is a game to him. Shana seems to be really getting frustrated, and I don't blame her. Fighting elves always frustrated me, considering my usual strategy is a complete failure under the circumstances.

Shana jumps back about 10 feet and shoot out a small, focused jet of flames at the elf.

"Shana, no!" I try to warn her, but to no avail.

The flames head towards the elf and connect with the barrier. I was prepared to see the flames bounce back and hit Shana, but they don't. The flames swirl around a bit before just disappearing. Shana seems even more frustrated, and jumps at the elf again, I simply stand there confused for a minute. _Do something, you're just standing there being useless! _'Did you see that?" _See what? The flames disappearing? That's normal. Counter, remember? _'No, remember Kirche? She used her flames and they bounced back and burned her to a crisp. Why did Shana's just disappear?' _... Wait. There, on his finger._

I look to see what he's talking about, and I notice a decorated ring on the elf's right hand. _That ring... If that ring's what I think it is... _'What? What is it?' _Bad. Very, very bad. Um... G-give me a moment. I need to check some things. _'What the hell are you talking about?' For once, my inner monologue doesn't respond.

I turn my attention to the battle and see Shana's still trying to fight the Elf. I ready Derflinger and get ready to jump in, but the Louises finish their spell, and cast. The air around the elf glows for a second, then shatters like a window. Shana hits the elf across the face with the hilt of her sword and points it at where he's lying on the ground.

The elf laughs. "You're slipping Shana, You're nowhere near as good as last time," He says.

Shana glares at him. "What are you talking about? We've never fought before today."

The elf stands back up, Shana keeps her sword at his throat the entire time. "Well, I guess I'm slipping a little too, if I could be beaten that easily. Anyway, I believe it's time I take my leave. Goodbye, my Shana," he says, his voice dripping with sarcasm and bitterness.

He jumps into the air and disappears, and it might have been my imagination, but I thought I saw black sparks floating around where he disappeared. _D-did you say bl-black sparks? As in a black fire? _'Yeah, why do you ask?' He doesn't respond. Eventually the group turns to Shana.

"_My_ Shana?" I ask.

"I'm more concerned with how he said it," Louise 1 says.

"What do you mean?" Louise 2 asks.

"You didn't hear it?" Louise 1 asks us. We all shake our heads.

"Then maybe it was my imagination but, just for a second, when he said that, he sounded almost exactly like Saito."

A look of shock crosses all our faces and we all remain silent. _Shit. Shit! The ring, the flames, the voice... Th-this isn't good. _'Good, you're back. What the hell's up with you?' _It's him. I'm certain of it. He's back. _'Who the hell are you talking about? What's up with you?' _No. No, it's just a coincidence. Anyone could have that ring and you and Louise 1 were imagining things. _'Start making sense!' _Saito, if it really is him, then there's nothing I can tell you that would properly describe how screwed we are. _'Would you just answer my questions?' _I can't. Not until I'm certain. Even then, it's probably better you not know. Let's all pray that I'm wrong. _Eventually I give up. My inner monologue doesn't seem to be in any mood to tell me anything, which really upsets me. When I want him to shut up, he never stops talking, and now that I want him to say anything I could understand, he clams up. That's just my luck.

*Elsewhere*

"... Well that was unexpected," the girl with the mismatched eyes muses to herself, as she sat on top of Alhambra tower. "He showed up early. He really shouldn't even exist yet. This doesn't bode well. Should I break a few rules and warn them? No. No. Ariana's got that covered." The girl sighed to herself. "What am I doing here. For all my talk, I really haven't accomplished much. Oh well. This timeline's pretty much good. Jus gotta accomplish one more thing and I think I can afford to check out the next one on the list. Maybe I can take a more active role there. This job is both incredibly boring at times, and far too important to give up."

The girl gets up, dusts herself off and gets ready to leave. "Sorry I couldn't have been more help then I was. The fun begins now. Good luck everyone."

Then she disappeared, her destination unknown.


	13. Exposition

Author Notes:

Here we are again, the final chapter before the epilogue. Did things I make things get more complicated then they needed to? Absolutely, but I like where things are going from here on out. Read, review, leave feedback, and enjoy the story!

**Exposition**

It hadn't been that long since we beat the elf and rescued Tabitha, and we were already in danger again. The princess had requested that me, Shana, and the Louises go fetch Tiffania from Saxe-Gotha and bring her under the protection of Tristain. We went there, we got her back, and we were on our way back when we were attacked by the Jormundgand again. We tried to fight it off, but backed off when we remembered that it had a giant counter spell on it. We were currently hiding out on a cliff, trying to come up with a plan.

"How do we stop this thing?" Louise 2 asked as we stared down the Jormundgand that was actively seeking us out.

"Dispel," Shana says. "If you can cast a strong enough dispel to get rid of the counter, I should be able to handle it from there."

Louise 1 shakes her head. "I don't think we have enough willpower to cast something that powerful."

"Well how do you recharge your willpower?" Shana asks.

"Emotions. Any emotion will do, anger, happiness, sadness, things like that," I tell her.

"And what emotion works fastest?" She asks again.

"Jealousy I think. But what good could..." I stop when I see the look on Shana's face. It looks like she just got an idea, but wasn't sure whether she loved the idea or hated it. _YES! I love this plan! _'You sure are feeling better. What happened?'_ I used your head's Internet connection to research some things, and I'm confident that we're all good. Even if my theory was right, I'm confident we can win. _'I have an internet connection in my head?!' _Yeah, but it's a little slow. Anyway, shouldn't you be more focused on Shana's plan?_

Then I realized why Shana looked like that. "No, no, no. You can't seriously be thinking about-" Before I can continue, Shana grabs the collar of my jacket, pulls me closer and, right in front of both of the Louises, kisses me. _Even if I was still scared of my previous thoughts, I can safely say I'd feel way better right now. Can we get her to kiss us more often?_ Shana didn't just give me a quick kiss, she stayed that way for at least 20 seconds without breaking contact. I'm scared of the fact that if it lasted any longer it might not have just stayed a kiss_. A fact that will always sadden me. _'Right, because kissing Shana in front of my wife wasn't bad enough, let's go even further!' _Your sarcasm hurts sometimes. _

Eventually she breaks the kiss and turns to the Louises who are both blushing, and look somewhere between fury, sadness, and shock.

"Do you have enough energy now?" Alastor asks the Louises.

They don't answer him, but they do start chanting their spell. I throw a quick glance at Shana and see that's she's heavily blushing, and looking straight at the Jormundgand. Eventually the Louises finish their spell and hit the Golem with all they've got. Like with the elf, the air around the Jormundgand glows, then shatters. Fire wings grow out of Shana's back, and she flies up in the air until she's about level with the Jormundgand's chest. _Holy crap, this is the first time I've seen her wings in real life. It's like a dream come true. _

Suddenly flames coat Shana's sword, which is impressive because she's about 200 feet in the air and I can see them as if they were right next to me, so their must have been a lot of fire. _I know this spell, I think. _'You think?' _I only got summaries, so concrete knowledge is hard to come by, but I'm pretty sure that's condemnation. _'I'd ask for more details, but I'm worried I'd just end up confusing myself even more.' Shana swings her sword and the flames cleave straight through the metal golem. The two halves of the Jormungand fall apart and collapse onto the ground and break into pieces. Shana flies back to our group, lands, and then starts to fall down. We run up to her and support her to keep her from falling.

"I might have overdone it," She replies weakly.

_Overdone it? Hell no! That was amazing! _'Amazing yes, but she could have been hurt. What if she fainted in the air and we couldn't reach her and she fell to the ground?' _Wait, when did you start worrying about her? _I don't reply when I realize my inner monologue has a point. Just for a second, I was worried about Shana. This doesn't bode well for my future.

Luckily I don't need to worry about it much. Before anyone can say anything else, we hear a rustle in the woods. The Louises and I turn around, and Shana uses her sword as a sort of cane to support herself. I draw Derflinger and get ready for a battle. Last time, Myoznitnirn showed up, so I was expecting her to show up again, ready for battle. I was way off. What we saw was a girl with white hair trip on something and fall out of the forest we were next to onto her face. A look of confusion is clearly visible on all of our group's faces.

The girl bounces back onto her feet and dusts herself off. She looked about as tall as Shana or Louise 2, and her white hair came down to her waist. She was wearing a white dress with equally white detached sleeves that covered just above her elbows down to her wrists, and I silently wonder how detached sleeves actually work. She turns to our group, smiles, and waves. Overall, the girl looked like a little kid, around 11 or 12 years old. _Kind of like Shana and Louise when you think about it._

"Hi! How're you doing?" she asks in a cheerful voice that sounds an awful lot like a child's.

"Ah, you're here," We hear Alastor say. "Am I to assume it's time?"

The girl nods. "That's a yes!"

The Louises, Shana and I are so confused that you could almost see the giant question mark hanging above us.

"Um... Alastor, who is she and how do you know her?" I ask.

"Call me Ariana," the girl says. "Me and Alastor met a few weeks ago."

"Before you ask, I can safely say I know her," Alastor confirms.

"See? We're all friends here!"

"So since you're here and talking to us, can we safely assume you have something important to say?" Shana asks

"That's a yes," Ariana says. "Sit down, we have to have a little group chat."

We look around. "Sit where? On the ground?" Louise 2 asks.

Ariana reaches into the pocket on her dress and pulls out what looks like a flip phone from back home on earth. She flips it up, gives it a wave and five chairs suddenly materialize. Four of the chairs sat in front of the last one. We all sit down in one. Due to the position of the chairs, The four people in our group were all facing Ariana.

"Shana," Ariana begins, "Would you mind putting up a fuzetsu?"

Shana obliges, and everything goes red.

"Good, now we can have our chat without any interruptions," Ariana says. "Okay, as I told you, my name is Ariana. I'm an angel."

The Louises gasp, and me and Shana give Ariana a curious look. "An angel? So you're dead?" Louise 1 asks.

_Damn, it must suck for a kid to die so young. _**_WHO'S A YOUNG KID?!_**

"Gah!" I yell as I nearly fall out of my chair. The Louises and Shana look at me, surprised by my sudden outburst.

"Sorry, I should have mentioned I can read minds and project my thoughts into your head," Ariana tells the group.

_Wait, so she can hear me? _**_That's correct, _**I hear Ariana's voice reply in my mind. _That's more then a little scary. _**_Get used to it._**

"Moving on," Ariana says. "No, I'm not dead. In the world where I come from, angels are more of their own race. We live, we marry, we have kids. Occasionally a human with an exceptionally pure heart becomes an angel when they die, but most angel's are born, not created by a dead person."

We all nod our heads to show that we understand. "So you're a kid angel?" Louise 1 asks.

"I am not a kid!" Ariana yells out angrily. "I turned 938 years old last week!"

Our eyes open in surprise. "Eh? You're almost a millennia old?" Louise 1 asks.

"Oh don't worry, 100 years for an angel is only the human equivalent of 1 years so-" Ariana clamps a hand over her mouth when she realizes what she just said.

"You're only 9 years old?" Louise 2 asks, almost laughing.

"Sh-shut up! So what if I'm the equivalent of a 9 year old? I could still beat any of you even if I barely know any spells!" Ariana yells at us while whirling her arms around and looking like she's ready to kill something.

"H-hey, calm down," Alastor says. "Get back to the main reason you're here."

Ariana takes a deep breath and seems to calm down. "Right. Anyway, as I was saying, I'm an angel, and on my world, some angels have a special job. They monitor the various timelines for any dangers."

"What do you mean by that?" I ask.

Ariana waves her phone again, and what looks almost like a hologram appears between her and us. The hologram resembles a highway of sorts, there are about a hundred different lines. Some of them swerve, some cross over, some go straight, and some are only half as long as the others.

"Here's a small sample of the possible timelines for this universe. Almost all of the timelines are similar to each other, the only differences present being very minor, a different step, an alternate line of dialogue. Saito, remember last time you went through these events when you off-handedly joked that even in alternate timelines you were Louise's familiar?"

I nod. "Yeah, but I was obviously wrong."

Ariana shakes her head. "Nope, now you're wrong. All the timelines for this world are only supposed to have you be summoned as the familiar. Wait, no. Some actually have you summon Louise as the familiar, but that's not important right now."

_I think It's pretty important. I kind of like the idea of Louise having to listen to whatever we have to say. _**_And there's also timelines where you die a horrible, painful death in ways worse then you can possibly conceive. Now shut up, I'm talking right now._**Ariana is actually kind of starting to scare me now.

"As I was saying, Saito is usually the one summoned. However, sometimes distortions occur," Ariana says.

"Distortions?" Shana asks.

"Nothing's perfect. Sometimes a timeline will randomly distort and bend, becoming something different then it was going to originally be," Ariana tells us. "That's why some of the timelines swerve and some cross over. Not all of the timelines are strictly about the people of this universe. Occasionally a distortion will cause Louise to summon someone completely different," Ariana tells us.

"Like Shana," Louise 2 says.

Ariana nods. "That's correct. The more powerful the result of the distortion is, the bigger the distortion itself. The bigger the distortion, the more likely the timeline is to collapse in on itself which is why some timelines are much shorter then others. The fact that the timeline survived a distortion as big as Shana is actually kind of surprising, but telling you things like this isn't why I'm here."

"Then why are you here?" I ask.

"I'm here to provide a warning," She tells us.

"Warning?" Our group asks at the same time.

Ariana nods her head. "Right. Saito and Louise 1 might think that they know what's going to happen, but from now on that changes. One of the people in charge of observing this timeline noticed that bad things happen that don't happened in any other timeline. At the end of the timeline we saw nothing but black, and that black spread out the other timelines, ending them too, and basically ending this universe."

Our group is silent for a minute. "What do you mean by blackness?" I ask after a minute of silence.

"Some kind of powerful force appears later in this timeline and destroys it. It manages to somehow travel to other timelines and destroy them too. We only have guesses as to what it is, and we don't even have any theories why it would want to destroy all the timelines. All we know is that if something isn't done, then everything's pretty much doomed."

Our group is silent for another minute once again. "So what do we do to stop it?" Louise 2 asks at last.

Ariana smiles. "I was hoping you'd say that. As of right now, I just need you to wait. In about a week I'll be back and we start step 1 in saving everything."

Ariana motions for us to stand up, which we do. She waves her phone again and the chairs disappear.

"Before I go, I have a little present for Shana," Ariana says.

"And what might that be?" Shana ask.

Ariana reaches into her dress pocket again, pulls something out and tosses it to Shana. Shana catches it and stares at it, wide eyed, and I think she actually starts drooling.

"Have some fresh melon bread, think of it as a reward," Ariana says with a smile.

Shana rips open the packaging and digs into the loaf of bread with a ferocity I've never seen from her. She eats the melon bread with a smile on her face, and the our group watches her in silence.

Ariana turns to walk off, but stops and looks over her shoulder at us.

"For now, just take your well deserved rest. I've got some preparations to make for next week."

_Before you leave, I have a question. _**_That question being? _**_He's the threat, isn't he? _**_... I don't know. Like I said, we only have guesses, but he's the most popular theory. Don't worry, if it is him we'll win. _**_That makes me feel much better. Thanks. _'Who the hell is he?" **_If it really is him, you'll find out eventually._**

Ariana dials a number in her phone, puts it to her ear, and walks off back into the forest, where she disappears, leaving the Louises and I to deal with that info bomb she dropped on us while Shana continues her meal, oblivious to the world around her.


	14. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"So, what are you going to do?" The girl with the mismatched eyes asked the boy next to her.

The boy had short brownish hair, and a pair of greyish eyes. His clothes were nothing out of the ordinary, but just by looking at him one could tell that the boy was not all he seemed. He appeared to almost radiate an aura of power that commanded respect.

"That depends," the boy said. "Why direct me to him?"

"You and King Joseph have some things in common," the girl says with a shrug. "I feel you can use each other to achieve your goals."

"You mean I use him, don't you?"

"Pretty much. I honestly don't really care what happens to him. By the way, you are aware of just who they all are, correct?"

"It matters not to me who I need to take down, especially with a goal as lofty as mine," the boy responds.

"Still, I think it can help to at least know their names," the girl insists.

"I disagree. However, I can tell you probably won't leave until you give me that information. Please proceed."

The girl with the mismatched eyes gives a bright smile. "Awesome. First off, there's the gandalfar, Saito Hiraga."

"The one with the jacket, correct?"

"Yes. He can wield any weapon with perfect mastery, so watch out for him. Next, is his masters, the Louises. They're void mages. Void mages are practically legendary, and are the most powerful mages in existence in this world. King Joseph actually is one, so you could potentially use that."

"Interesting," the boy muses. "Go on."

"Right. I'll skip Shana, because I'm sure you're rather familiar with her."

The boy chuckles. "Quite."

"Next up are two butei from Japan. They're highly trained bounty hunters, so you should keep that in mind. They're known as Aria the Scarlet Ammo and her... Well, the relationship between the two is hard to pinpoint, so we'll call her his partner. His name's Kinji. He can raise his combat ability several times in times of extreme stress and under the proper circumstances."

"Those circumstances being?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out!" The girl says with a wink, earning a frown from the boy. "Next is the little rich mistress, Nagi, and her butler, Hayate. He's a tough one, so of the two worry about him. He's rather protective of her though, so maybe use that? Or avoid it? Not my place to suggest too much."

"Again, rather interesting," the boy begins thinking of ways he could use that knowledge.

"Next up is the Palmtop Tiger herself, Taiga, and her boyfriend Ryuji. Of the entire group, you can worry about them the least. They were high school students before this, not much combat experience, and Ryuji looks tougher then he really is."

"Why bring high school students into this?" The boy wonders aloud. "All the help you can get, I suppose."

The girl with mismatched eyes shrugs. "The next two are a little trick to deal with. First off, the living weapon, Eve. She can morph any part of her body into various implements, blades, shields, things like that. I imagine if she out her mind to it she could pull off even more deadly things. The last one is Fuka. I know she may not seem like much, what with her cute little prinny hat, but she has deluded herself so much she's capable of using all of her potential as a human. That translates to her beating down demons by the truckload by at her old home in the netherworld."

The boy digests this information, before smiling. This would certainly be interesting.

"I appreciate your help. I'll go introduce myself to the mad king now. Thought I don't believe I ever caught your name."

"Never gave it, Snake of the Festival."

"Please, call me Yuji. It seems more fitting."

With that, the snake disappeared to make contact with the mad king Joseph. Despite having accomplished her goal, the girl was uneasy.

"I'm sorry, all of you. But it was necessary." The girl sighs. "You'll forgive me eventually, right?"

With that, the girl lies down on her back and looks to the sky. She spends just a few moments studying the stars, before closing her eyes.

"You sure that was a good idea?" another voice asks.

The girl with the mismatched eyes doesn't bother looking at the new girl. "What are you doing here, Louise?"

The girl called Louise (who had no relation to anyone else named Louise) looked remarkably like the girl with mismatched eyes, with a few key differences. Unlike the blonde with mismatched eyes, the new girl had jet black hair, and a pair of green eyes. She also had cat ears and a cat tail to further separate herself from the girl with mismatched eyes.

"I- I just came to see how you were doing. Your friends kept telling me you were busy, so I decided to see what that business was," Louise says as she sits down next to the girl.

"Yeah, this is pretty much what I've been doing in my spare time. Working both sides, trying to get things on track and hit my goal," the girl replies, her eyes still closed.

"Like I asked, are you sure that's a good idea?" Louise asks.

"If I just work with them, then the snake could do something unexpected and ruin everything. I work with both of them and I can nudge both tracks onto the same end. The good end."

"Just... be careful, okay?" Louise asks. "You know what could happen if things go wrong, right?"

"I know, I know. That's why I'm doing this. Keep that 11% of existence safe, or something like that."

"Let me know if you need any help," Louise says. "I'm always willing to help out."

"In that case, you mind just sitting here with me for a bit? I could use the company," the girl says. "It's been a while since I've talked to anyone. I've been far too busy."

Louise nods. They spent some time talking with each other, as the night wore on, and an irreversible series of events was set into motion.

**Author's conclusion:**

Interestingly enough, the girl with the cat ears was originally called just that, the girl with the cat ears. However, it kind of started wearing on me constantly typing "the girl/boy (insert description here)" for practically everyone sentence. As such, I decided to name at least one of them, make things easier for myself. Why's her name Louise when we already have two? ... I dunno. I thought it sounded nice. Why does she have cat ears? That there is a reason for. Not a reason I can go into yet, but I'll get there when I get there. Why are Yuji and Louise named but not the girl with the mismatched eyes? I dunno. No real reason. A time to give her name never really came up. Not like it really matters anyway, what good would knowing her name do?

Also... Okay. As you may or may not have noticed, I kind of edited this story a fair bit. All those bits previously, regarding the girl with the mismatched eyes was all added recently. Well, recently relative to whenever this is going up. Originally it was always Ariana, instead of the girl. I also wound up editing the Ariana sections a bit to reflect the changes, but that's relatively minor. Also, I completely rewrote the epilogue from the ground up. Whether or not it was better before is both a valid question, and one that'll never be answered. Why did I do all this? Well, I originally wrote this a long time ago, as you can tell by the date this story was first uploaded. Since then, my ideas regarding this story and a lot of other stuff have changed since the first draft. That and I really wrote myself into a corner with that first epilogue, having locked myself into a battle with a million troops and a suite of stupid nicknames for everyone. I'm giving myself a little wiggle room.

In any case, before I update all of this, at the end of the author's conclusion last time was a sneak peek of my "next" story, The Legendary Familiars. Considering if all goes well that should be up already, I think I'll hold off on that one and instead ask you to please check it out. This is The Uncreative, signing off.


End file.
